The Dragon's Ring
by SilvorMoon
Summary: Everyone on Satellite wants to escape to the city. Two people actually make it. Two escape the city jail. And Yusei is offered everything he ever wanted - provided he can gather them all again before time runs out, and Utopia becomes a nightmare.
1. Prologue

**_Warnings:_** In later chapters, this fic will contain coarse language, sexual innuendo, and various forms of violence, including nonsexual bondage, torture (including torture of a child), character death, and suicide.

**Prologue: A Bad Career Move**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Neo Domino was the city of dreams. Carly, looking through the window of her car at the colorful lights that blazed across the night, thought that this was probably a good thing, because at the moment, dreams were about all she had left.

She had come to the city about a week ago, with noting but her ambitions, the small amount of money she had been able to save working summer jobs, and what personal possessions she could stuff into her car. She had hugged her parents, said goodbye to her grandmother, and promised her little brothers and sisters that she would send back toys when she got the chance, and she'd set out on her own with high hopes. She was going to get a job at a real news agency. She was going to become an ace reporter and interview all the important people and travel the world and be famous. She'd probably win a Pulitzer within her first year. Those were the images that had danced before her mind's eye as she drove the long miles between her small-town home and the bright city of Neo Domino. She still had those dreams, but she was beginning to realize that they were going to take a little longer than she'd hoped they would.

With a sigh, she crumpled up the wrapper of the fast-food sandwich she'd been eating. She had not been able to find a job anywhere. Without a job, she couldn't afford to make a payment for an apartment. She had been living out of her car ever since she'd gotten here, parking wherever she could avoid a ticket and hopefully not be noticed by the ever-watchful eye of Security. Most of those places were of the sort where she felt the need to keep her doors locked and sleep with one eye open. She'd been living on fast food takeouts and whatever she could find that she could eat without having to cook first. It wouldn't be long before she wouldn't be able to do that any longer - she was nearly out of money.

_I can't go home, though,_ she thought. _I can't tell them I failed. There's go to be something..._

She shoved the sandwich wrapper into a plastic shopping bag that was serving as a trash receptacle, but it was already filled to overflowing. A few paper balls fell out to scatter on her car floor. With a noise of frustration, she gathered them all up and forced them back into the bag, holding it shut with one hand so they couldn't escape again. She was, she decided, going to have to find a real trash can. Was it safe to go out this time of night? Maybe. The street was dark and empty - everyone seemed to have gone to sleep for the night. Moving cautiously, alert for any movement, Carly exited the car and began searching for a garbage can.

She had only taken a few steps when she caught the sound of footsteps. She froze, listening. Someone was moving stealthily up the street ahead of her - not coming her way, but hurrying somewhere else. As she listened, she picked up a few scraps of conversation: "...keep a lookout..." "...in through the window..." "...not to wake anyone..."

_A robbery?_ she wondered. Her first reaction was not fear, but elation: finally, here was something she could report on! She would catch them in the act, snap a few photos, be the first to write it all up. She would present her findings to a good paper, and they would _have_ to accept it from her. She'd finally get a real job, and everything would be all right. Forgetting the garbage, she made a dash to her car and grabbed her camera before racing off in search of the voices.

A short distance up the road, two men were busily occupied with jimmying open a window while another stood watch. Carly pressed herself against a wall and watched them, hoping they hadn't noticed her yet. The watchman, though, didn't seem to be paying close attention. He yawned, took out a lighter, and lit a cigarette. The other two men got the window open and clambered inside. After a moment or two, the guard apparently got bored and went to see what his friends were doing. He called something to them, and apparently got an answer, because he scurried through the open window to join them.

_Now is my chance!_ Carly thought. She scampered up the sidewalk and tiptoed over to the window. She reached for the sill and pulled herself up to peek inside. It was dark, but she could hear people moving around inside. She wondered whether it would be better to try to take a picture now and hope the flash would catch something useable before she had to make a run for it, or if she should wait and try to catch them as they came out...

She waited too long. The next thing she noticed was that someone was standing over her, someone big. She looked up to find a uniformed officer standing over her. He was smiling. It was not a nice smile.

"Well, well, well," he said. "What do we have here?"

**To Be Continued...**


	2. Carly Becomes a Wheelbarrow

**Carly Becomes a Wheelbarrow**

**By: SilvorMoon**

The hallway was quiet. It was still early in the morning, and most of the prisoners hadn't bothered to wake up yet. What point was there? Breakfast wouldn't be served until nine, and there was nothing to do until then but lie in their cells and dream that they were somewhere else. The only light came from a few dim bulbs spaced down the center of the hallway, providing just barely enough illumination that a prisoner could walk around his room without tripping over anything. Not that there was much to trip over: there was little furniture in these rooms other than the beds.

Carly paced anyway. She hadn't gotten a good night's sleep for the three nights she had been here. The first day, she had done little else but lie in her bed and sob, or simply stare at the walls. What else could she do? Her trial had been a joke: even though there was no evidence to prove that she'd had anything to do with the break-in, and the men involved all swore they had never seen her before, the fact that she was a stranger in town, a vagrant with no money and no job, had been enough to turn the case against her. Her court-appointed lawyer had made no more than a token effort to defend her, and she had been convicted of attempted burglary almost before she'd had time to get settled in her chair.

Now she was stuck here, with very little idea of how long she would be imprisoned or what she would do when she got out. All her belongings - her car, her camera, even her toothbrush - had been impounded, and she had no idea if she'd ever get them back. The only thing she'd managed to save was her deck, which she'd had the foresight to tuck into her bra, and then raise a righteous fury when the harassed-looking officer assigned to her had attempted to put his hands there. Not that it was doing her any good here, but there were some things you couldn't give up, no matter what.

Idly, she rubbed at the new mark on her cheek. It still itched a little, and she wondered if it would always bother her now, or whether that was something that would wear off in time. It felt smooth and slick, metallic under her fingers, like a piece of thin foil. She wasn't allowed a mirror in her prison cell, in case she tried to break it and do something with the shards, so she had never actually seen what they'd done to her face. It was only by touch that she knew the shape of it: an arch like a crescent moon, with a small dot encircled by it. It would never come off. How could she ever hope to succeed at her chosen career when anyone who looked at her would see her as a criminal? How could she do _anything_?

Still, there was only so long she could sit around feeling sorry for herself. Hers was a naturally optimistic mind, and giving up wasn't in her nature. She would find a way to work with this. If she could just get out of this prison, somehow, she was certain there would be a way to sort things out. They couldn't stop her from working forever just because of one little mistake...

On an impulse, she took out her deck and shuffled it, and then drew the top card.

"Fortune-Telling Witch Hikarichan. All your wishes will come true..." she read. She smiled, for the first time in days. "I knew it! Things will turn out all right. I've just got to keep trying!"

"Who's making all that noise?" called a voice. A guard approached and looked through her window at her. "Oh, it's you. You're awake - that's good. You need to eat breakfast so you can get going."

"Going?" she repeated. "Go where?"

"To the island," said the guard. "Didn't you know? You're being released today."

Carly tried not to faint at the word "released".

"No," she said weakly. "I didn't know that."

"Well, hurry it along. You need to be ready when the chopper leaves, or you'll be left here. Not that you'll be much better off either way, but we need to clear up space for the real criminals. Small-timers like you don't need to be cluttering up the place..."

Carly barely paid attention to what he was saying. Obviously her Fortune-Telling Fairy had been right. She pranced with impatience as the guard unlocked her door and ushered her into the cafeteria. It was still too early for the regular meal to be laid out, but there were a dozen or so other prisoners besides herself getting food, and Carly could only assume that they were also being released today. She was too nervous to be interested in eating, but the guard encouraged her to take something, so she managed to polish off a muffin and some cold scrambled eggs, and gulped down some tasteless coffee. At last, the guards rounded everyone up and marched them out into the courtyard. There was a large helicopter waiting there.

_What is that for?_ she wondered. Then it clicked: the guard had mentioned something about an island. Hadn't she heard somewhere that the island of Satellite was inhabited mostly by criminals? Did that mean they were going to send here _there?_

For a moment, she had the crazy urge to break ranks and make a run for it... but of course, there was nowhere she could run to. She was surrounded by guards and by the walls of the prison.

_Stay calm,_ she told herself, as she marched into the helicopter with the other prisoners. _Okay, Satellite is a slum, but that's not much worse than where you were before. At least you'll be out of here, and you can start thinking of what to do next..._

She had never gotten a very good look at Satellite before. She had spent most of her stay in Neo Domino trying to find a job, and Satellite was just a smudge way out on the water that wasn't worth her attention. Sure, she had heard people saying things about it that didn't sound very encouraging, but most of what they said didn't offer much in the way of detail. She had formed the impression that it was a bad neighborhood - a slum, dirty and crime-ridden, but still basically just another part of the city. Before the helicopter landed, though, she knew better. She stared out the window and couldn't quite believe what she was seeing. She had known it was going to be bad, but she had thought that at least the buildings would be in one piece...

_That's not a city. That's not even a slum. That's a disaster area! Do people really live here?_

The helicopter landed on a pad at the edge of the island, and the guards hustled everyone onto solid ground. Carly stepped out carefully, as if expecting land mines, and looked at her new surroundings. Everything was broken-down and filthy, littered with old junk and refuse that she didn't care to look at too closely; she could almost hear the armies of rats scurrying around just out of sight. Few of the buildings in the immediate area had all four walls still standing, and none of them had real windows anymore. A thick smog hung in the sky, and the water had a greasy look to it.

"Well, you're free to go," said one of the guards.

"Go where?" she asked.

She must have looked more than a little lost, because the guard apparently felt sorry for her. His expression softened just a bit.

"If you want to earn some money, you can get work at the processing plant up there," he said, pointing to a building in the distance. "There's a shop where you can buy food and clean water. After that, though, you're on your own."

"Oh. Thanks," she said automatically.

With no other direction she wanted to go, she started toward the plant. She noticed that a few other people seemed to be wandering in that general direction, too, trudging along without enthusiasm. She started to speak to them, thinking to ask them some questions, but she squelched the urge. These people didn't look like they'd tell her anything, and some of them looked downright unfriendly. She didn't want to start making enemies her first day there.

As Carly drew closer to the plant, she became aware that the garbage smell was getting progressively worse. It dawned on her to wonder just what it was that this plant supposedly processed. She got her answer as she pushed the front door open and found herself facing a room full of conveyor belts and vast heaps of trash. The air inside was warm and stuffy, and smelled like the bottom of a dumpster after a week-long heat wave, mixed with an overtone of unwashed bodies. While she was staring at this in dismay, she was accosted by a bored-looking guard.

"New here?" he asked. "Gloves are in that box. Plastic goes in that bin, metal in that one, clean paper in that one, used batteries in that one. If you find any electronics that look salvageable, put 'em in that pile over there. Got all that?"

She nodded and picked up a pair of gloves. They were a bit too big for her, stiff and clumsy, and smelled of old sweat. She grimaced, but pulled them on anyway, and took her place next to a conveyor belt. Several other people were already there, picking through the trash, so she followed suit. The group worked in silence, glumly sorting garbage into one bin or another, never speaking or even meeting each other's eyes.

_Is this really all there is to do on this island? Am I going to be up to my elbows in junk for the rest of my life?_

For a moment, her bright dreams of fame seemed to shimmer before her eyes before melting into nothingness. Against her will, she felt tears pricking at her eyes and spilling down her cheeks, over that hateful mark...

"Hey," said a voice next to her. "Don't cry. It's not that bad."

Carly sniffled. "I'm not crying."

She took off her glasses to wipe her face on her sleeve. When she put them on again, she found herself looking into the eyes of a man who watched her through his own pair of spectacles. He had a thin, pale face and dark hair bunched into a ponytail. His eyes were kind.

"You're new here, aren't you?" he said. "I'm Blitz. That's Nerve. He's Taka. We've lived here forever. We can show you the ropes, if you want."

"Thanks," she said. "I could use some help. I'm Carly. Nice to meet you."

Taka, the heavyset blond, waved at her. "So, what are you in for?"

"Attempted burglary," she said, "but I didn't do it! I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"They don't care," said Nerve bitterly. "Anybody who doesn't fit in gets shipped here sooner or later. Their justice system is a joke."

"I can't stay here, though! I had plans... I'm going to be a reporter!" she blurted.

Blitz shook his head slowly. "Nobody gets off this island. People have been trying for years. It can't be done."

"There has to be a way," she said stubbornly.

"Well," said Taka, scratching his head, "a couple of our buddies have been working on it, but so far, they haven't had much luck. If anyone can do it, though, I'll bet it will be one of them."

"Who are they?" asked Carly, clinging to this scrap of hope.

"Well, there's Yusei, who lives with us," said Nerve, "and then there's Jack... but we haven't seen him in a while. He went off by himself a while ago."

"He always did seem to think he was better than everyone else. Ever since he was a kid," said Taka thoughtfully. "He sure could duel, though. You gotta give him that."

"Is he really good?" asked Carly.

"Best I've ever seen," Nerve admitted. "The only one who can even come close is Yusei. I'll bet the two of them could even take on the pros if they ever got the chance."

"Hm," said Carly, filing that information away for future reference. "Do you think I could meet them someday?"

"Sure, I guess," said Blitz. "Yusei, anyway. Some days he even comes to work here, but lately he's been all wrapped up in trying to build a new D-Wheel. Like Nerve said, though, Jack's been kind of scarce lately. He had some kind of a falling-out with his old friends and went off on his own."

"Do you duel?" asked Taka.

"A little bit. I still have my deck," said Carly. "It's the only thing I managed to save. They took all my other stuff..."

"I'll play you on our lunch break," Taka offered.

"We get lunch?" she asked.

"We usually buy something at the shop," Blitz explained. "Have you got any money? No, wait, of course you don't. I'll cover it. You can pay me back at the end of the day."

She ate lunch with her new friends, sitting on the ground outside the garbage plant and playing cards with them while slurping ramen noodles made with hot water from a tap. After they'd eaten, they returned to work, chatting and swapping stories. By the end of the day, Carly was in better spirits, though she felt more in need of a hot shower than she ever had in her life. Unfortunately, there were no hot showers in the offing, or any showers at all. Feeling tired and filthy, she took her place in line with the rest of the workers to receive her meager pay.

"So what are you going to do now?" asked Blitz, as she gave him the money she owed for the food. It didn't leave much for her. "I'd like to offer you a place with us, but we're already pretty crowded..."

"It's fine," she said bravely. "I'll work something out."

"Good luck, then," said Nerve. "Look after yourself! Try not to move into a place where someone already lives."

She agreed that she wouldn't, and set off with a determined step, delving into the ruined city.

It was one of the strangest trips she had ever taken. It was like walking into another world - or perhaps a distant, apocalyptic future where all of humanity had been wiped out and their civilizations destroyed. All she could see were uniformly gray, broken buildings, cracked pavement, and heaps of garbage. She had to chart a zigzagging course just to keep from stepping or falling into something that would have been unpleasantly sticky, or worse. A few times, she thought she saw people moving about, but they kept their distance from her, and for once, she wasn't curious to see what her fellow humans were doing. All she wanted at this point was a safe place to curl up and sleep.

After she had traveled a few blocks, she came to what had once been a large building, now crumpled in on itself until it was nearly flattened. However, as she poked around one of its far corners, she discovered that there was still one room in back that was more or less sound. She crawled under a slab of what had once been the ceiling and crept in for a closer look. It had once been part of a library - a reference section, by the look of the titles she could still make out. There was an ancient chair, which appeared to have been made into a nest for mice at some point in its history, but a careful inspection showed that it was currently unoccupied. The room was thick with dust and cobwebs: no one had been there in years. Carly curled up on the chair, placed her glasses on a nearby desk, and closed her eyes.

_So I survived my first day in Satellite. I have a job and a little money now, and some friends, and a safe place to sleep. I'm tired and hungry and I smell like I've been crawling in a garbage heap all day, but okay. Things could be worse._ She shifted position, trying to get comfortable in the lumpy chair. _Things could be a lot better, though. I'm trapped on this awful island with no way to get off. I'm going to be picking garbage forever if I don't think of some way to escape..._

Lying alone in the dark, surrounded by moldering books, Carly mulled over her options. She was still sifting through plans, each more implausible than the next, when she finally dropped off to sleep.

* * *

Over the next two weeks or so, Carly's life fell into a routine. During the day, she labored at the recycling plant. She spent her lunch breaks making friends with the other workers there, swapping gossip and playing cards, exchanging life stories. Despite what she'd been told, not everyone on the island was a criminal or even particularly unpleasant. A lot of them were people like her, who simply hadn't fit in and so had been arrested and shunted out of the way. Some of them had lived on the island before the explosion, before they had ever imagined it would someday _be_ an island, and were now stranded there through no fault of their own. Some of them had families there, parents and wives and children. Some of them had family they hadn't seen in years, because they were on the mainland and communicating with them was nearly impossible. Carly liked the islanders. They were interesting, and she had a reporter's taste for interesting people. During the day, at least, she almost enjoyed living on Satellite... except for the garbage.

The evenings, though, were a different story. She spent the hours between the time she got out of work and the time she absolutely couldn't stay awake any longer exploring the island, learning what she could about it, and above all, trying to find a way off of it. She learned that there were only two exits that didn't involve being able to fly or being able to float across the ocean. One was the tunnel that the garbage was dumped through every night. Its gates opened for a very brief time, and it was possible that someone very fast and very skillful - a particularly talented D-Wheeler, for example - could have gotten through it before it closed. Carly was not a talented D-Wheeler, and at any rate didn't have a bike to ride, so that wasn't an option. The other way out was the tunnel used for the comings and goings of the Security officers who patrolled the island looking for trouble, or possibly just for people to harass. That tunnel was open most of the time, but it was also heavily guarded and always had officers in it or around it. Still, it looked like the best way to get out, if only there was a way to sneak past the guards.

But there didn't seem to be a way. Each night, Carly went home tired and dejected to curl up in her library chair to try to sleep. Her clothing was almost unrecognizable now, stained by the filth she worked in every day to the same gray color as the streets and buildings. It was starting to get ground in under her nails. She was getting the feeling that the island's miasma was somehow seeping into her pores, turning her into a part of itself. There was a part of her that was afraid that if she stayed there too long, she'd become somehow _rooted_ to the place, until she would never be able to get off of it even if a way opened up for her. Even as it was, she wondered if she'd ever get completely clean again.

She was contemplating this grim possibility at work one afternoon, so deeply in thought that she almost missed what her friends were talking about.

"Again?" Blitz was saying. "What did he do _now_?"

"The same thing he always does," said Taka. "Stupid Crow. You'd think he'd know better by now. How many times does this make?"

"I think this is his eighth," said Nerve.

"No, it's nine," Blitz corrected. "I think he's trying to make it an even ten. Or a dozen."

"Any idea how long he's in for this time?" Nerve asked.

"Just a month, I think. They caught him before he could get anything good," said Blitz.

"Wait, what's going on?" Carly asked.

"Nothing much. Our friend Crow got arrested again," Blitz explained. "He's always getting arrested, and as soon as they let him out, he goes out and does the same thing again."

Carly blinked. "Why does he keep doing it, then?"

"He's got these kids," said Taka. "Crow collects orphans like some people collect stamps. Then he goes out and steals cards from the Security warehouses to give them to play with. Then he gets arrested and hauled off to jail, and then they ship him back over here and he goes back to his kids and wants to do something to make up for leaving them alone, so..."

"Wait, wait," said Carly. "You can get arrested while you're already over here?"

"Why do you think there are so many Security officers around all the time?" Nerve retorted.

Carly persisted. "And if you get arrested, they take you back to the mainland?"

"Don't get any ideas," Blitz told her. "If you did get arrested, you'd be handcuffed to an officer from here to jail. There's no escaping that way. If there was, you'd think Crow would have done it by now. He's sure had enough chances to try."

"Hm," Carly said.

"You _aren't_ getting ideas, are you?" asked Taka.

"I _might_ be," said Carly. "I need to think about it."

So for the rest of the day, she worked in silence, mulling the idea over. Her friends, sensing her preoccupation, let her have her time. When the day came to a close, she was still lost in thought.

_It might work. It has to work. But I can't do it alone..._

"Hey guys," she said, "didn't you say you had a couple of friends who were good duelists? Do you think I could meet them?"

"What, today?" said Taka. "I don't think Yusei's going to be home today. He said before we left that he was going to Martha's. Her stove broke down again, and that's always an all-day job."

"What about the other one? Jack, I think you said?"

"Well, he _might_ be around," said Nerve, "but you never know. He can be kind of... prickly. You're better off not just dropping in unannounced. He might not like it."

"I can at least try. Please," she said.

"Well, if you're really desperate to talk to him," said Blitz, "he usually hangs out at the old theater. I'll give you directions, if you want, but I really don't think it's a good idea."

"Why not? He's your friend, right?" asked Carly.

"Well, he was," said Nerve. "These days, though... Things have changed."

Nevertheless, Carly was able to talk them into giving her a map showing her how to get to Jack's favorite hideout, and as soon as work let out, she said goodbye to everyone and scurried off to find the theater. It didn't look like such a bad trip. The theater was apparently located in one of the better parts of town, one where most of the buildings were more or less still standing, albeit in something of a state of disrepair. If she didn't look too closely, she could almost convince herself that she was walking in an ordinary city.

Perhaps if it had not been so well-kept, Carly might have been more cautious. As it was, she let herself be lulled into a sense of security. If she had been thinking more carefully, she might have realized that better buildings would mean more people. Even then, she might not have worried; she had gotten used to the idea that people on the island weren't as bad as the rumors made them out to be.

Then she heard the footsteps. She stopped, listening. They were coming closer. She turned around and found five young men, probably in their twenties, swaggering up the street, grinning at her. All of them had the gold marks of criminals. She didn't think they were there to welcome her.

"Hey, there, girlie," said the young man in the front. "We haven't seen _you_ around here before. Stop and talk to us a while."

"N-no, sorry, I'm kind of in a hurry - I'm late for an appointment," Carly babbled.

"You sure you don't want to hang out with us? You're pretty cute," said another man, darting to stand beside her. "You could have a lot of fun..."

He reached out to stroke her cheek, but she swatted his hand away.

"Get off me," she snapped. "Leave me alone!"

"Not until we've given you a proper welcoming party."

The circle was closing around her now. Carly cast about desperately for an escape, but she was already surrounded. She swung a fist at the nearest man, but he caught it easily and pulled her towards him. Giving up all pretense at being in control of the situation, Carly screamed with all her might and began thrashing around like a wild thing. The men only laughed and latched on to her flailing arms, wrenching them painfully behind her back. They began hauling her away - she wasn't sure where, but she was sure she wouldn't want to go there. She screamed with new intensity.

"Who is making all that noise?"

It wasn't a very loud voice, but it nevertheless cut through even all the racket that Carly was making. There was a sense of command behind it, so much that everyone froze in their tracks. Carly fell silent. Whoever had spoken was standing behind her, so she couldn't see what he looked like, but she had a feeling that he was no one she wanted to cross.

"Stay out of this," said one of her captors. "This doesn't have anything to do with you."

"You're in _my_ block," said the new voice. "That makes this my business. I say, let the girl go."

"You're overlooking one thing, buddy: there's five of us and one of you."

Carly couldn't see the icy smile, but she could hear it loud and clear in his voice. "Nearly fair odds, then."

"You saying you want a fight?" the man who had been in the lead asked. Carly could hear his voice shake slightly, and she realized with sudden hope that, five-to-one odds or not, he was scared.

"I've been bored this week," said the mysterious man. "Liven things up for me."

There was a sudden scuffle. Carly found herself shoved aside as the gang attacked as one body. She straightened herself up, telling herself she ought to run while no one was paying attention to her, but she couldn't tear her eyes off of what was happening just a few yards away. The five men who had captured her were now swarming around another young man with gleaming blond hair, who seemed to be having a fine time fighting with them. As Carly watched, he drove his fist into the face of one man, grabbed a second by the arm and swung him around to propel him into two of his comrades, and then deliver a swift kick into the gut of another. No one could even get close to him. Carly watched, entranced, as the stranger sent all five of them fleeing into the shadows. He dusted himself off, looking vaguely disappointed, as though that hadn't been enough of a challenge. He began walking over to where Carly was still standing rooted to the spot.

"Did they hurt you?" he asked calmly.

She shook her head. "No, not really..."

"Good," he said, and turned to walk away.

"Hey, wait!" she said, scrambling to catch up with him.

He stopped to look at her, fixing her with a glare that said, "This had better be good." Up close, she realized that he was even more imposing than he had been from a distance. He was considerably taller than her, for one thing, forcing her to look up at him. He had a proud, fine-boned face with the most intensely violet eyes she had ever seen. She had never realized anyone could even have eyes that color. Just looking at them gave her the sense of an intense personality, just as much as his noble bearing and proud voice did. His body was slender, but he was obviously strong and agile, to have handled five attackers so neatly. Carly realized she was staring.

_He's gorgeous,_ she caught herself thinking, and pushed the thought away. She had other things to worry about right now.

"I'm looking for someone," she said. "His name is Jack Atlus. He's supposed to live around here, somewhere. Have you seen him?"

"You've found him," he said.

"Oh," she said. "Um."

"Look, say what's on your mind or go away," said Jack. "Don't waste my time."

"I need your help," she began.

"I just gave you my help. That's probably more than you deserve."

"Please, just listen," she said desperately. "Do you want to get off this island?"

He gave her another one of those razor-edged looks.

"Of course I want to get off the island," he snapped. "There's not a single person who _doesn't_ want to get off this godforsaken place. It can't be done."

"Oh, yes it can," she said. "I have a plan. But I'm going to need some help. My friends said you're the best duelist on this island, and you can hold your own in a fight, and that's the kind of person I need. If we work together, we can escape."

"What makes you so sure this plan of yours will work?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Just hear me out," she said, a bit desperately. "I'll tell you my plan, and you can decide if you want to help me or not."

He considered the idea for so long that Carly was sure he was going to reject her. Then he said, "Come with me. We'll talk somewhere private."

Without waiting for her reply, he began to walk, and she began trotting along after him. He didn't appear to be paying much attention to her, but he was walking slowly enough that she could easily catch up and fall into step alongside him. She was glad of that; her encounter with the gang had left her badly shaken, and she had developed a sense that Jack could protect her from anything up to a full-scale nuclear war. It was reassuring to have him marching along beside her within reaching distance. Her heart was still racing, perhaps not entirely from her brush with peril. Not many people had ever taken an interest in a clumsy, bespectacled, fashion-blind girl, and walking beside an extremely attractive man was something new.

They reached what must have been the old theater. It hadn't withstood the disaster as well as some of the buildings had - its unsupported roof had collapsed, leaving it open to the sky. Carly could see rows of seats inside, most of them half-buried in rubble. The stage was still sound, though, and there were signs that someone was still using it. A chair rested at its center - not just a chair, but a throne, perched on a low dias. Jack led her up to it and dropped into the throne with the ease of one who has done so a thousand times before. Carly, not knowing what else to do, sat down on the dias at his feet. He looked down at her, those intense violet eyes locked on hers, and she could see the hunger in them. It wasn't the kind of hunger that had led the men in the alley to grab her. It was for something far beyond her, but looking at the throne, she thought she could guess what it was, and she knew she'd come to the right man for the job.

"Talk," he said. "Tell me how a girl like you has figured out how to do what no one else has done in seventeen years."

"Well..." she said, choosing her words carefully, "it's like... there's this old story about a man who works at a construction company, standing guard. And every day, this same guy pushes a wheelbarrow full of dirt past him, and the guard just _knows_ the guy is stealing something, but every day he searches through the dirt, and every day he doesn't find anything. Finally, after years and years, the guy retires, and the guard asks him on his last day what it is he's been stealing all that time, and it turns out he's been stealing _wheelbarrows_."

"Does this story have a point?"

"_Yes._ The point is, you can get anything past anybody as long as they're looking at something else. It's the old magician's trick. They don't do magic, really, they just make you look the other direction while they're doing things." Carly took a breath. "And that's why I need your help. Because I'm going to be a wheelbarrow. And you're going to steal me."

"And how do you think I'm going to do that?"

Carly told him. Jack listened. He didn't say anything while she was speaking, but she could feel the force of his attention boring down on her as she spoke. When she was done, she sat fidgeting, watching him, wondering if this whole idea was completely ridiculous and she might not have been better off just to stick with sorting trash.

"Hm," said Jack at last. "Have you told anyone else about this?"

"No. Just you."

"I see. Where are you staying now?"

"Um..." she said, taken aback. That wasn't the sort of question she'd been expecting. "I've got a room... I think it's in an old library..."

"That's not safe," said Jack. "I think you had better stay here, where I can keep an eye on you."

"Thank you!" she blurted.

"You don't know enough about surviving on this island," he said. "What made you think that if you told me your plans, I wouldn't just abandon you and escape with someone I already know?"

She blushed. "I... I didn't..."

"You expected me to behave with honor. Not everyone here will do that. You're going to have to learn to be more careful."

"So you're going to help me?" she asked hopefully.

"I would do anything to get off this island," he said flatly. "You're the only one who has ever offered to help me." He shifted, sliding off of his chair, and gestured at the theater. "And what have I got to lose?"

She was forced to admit that it didn't look like much.

"It's better downstairs," he said. "There's an empty dressing room you can have."

He stood, and Carly followed him as he led her down a flight of creaky stairs to the dressing rooms downstairs. He opened the door to one of them, and Carly peeked curiously inside, and discovered that it really was better than the upstairs - better than her nook in the library, in fact. The dressing rooms were underground, and therefore somewhat more stable than the space above. This one actually had a few lights that still worked, and some furniture, and a sofa that was still in passable condition. The worst Carly could find wrong with the room, other than the fact that it was full of dust and cobwebs, was a crack up one wall, through which a bit of moss was attempting to grow. There was a shelf that had some battered-looking notebooks, probably old scripts, lying haphazardly on top of it. There was a large cracked mirror across one wall, and a few hairbrushes and ancient, dried-out makeup strewn across the dressing table.

"It's nice," she said, and meant it. It was amazing how much her perspective could change in the space of a few weeks.

"You think this is good?" asked Jack, rasing an eyebrow.

"It's better than the library," she said, "and it's better than jail."

Jack reached out and brushed her hair away from her face, running his fingers over the mark on her cheek. She tried not to shiver at his touch.

"What did you do?" he asked.

"Nothing," she said. "I was standing around too close to where a burglary was going on and they arrested me with everyone else. I didn't do a thing."

"I see," Jack replied. "You realize that if you go back to the mainland, you'll be a criminal? It's illegal to leave the island. As soon as they realize what you've done, they'll start to hunt you down. That mark of yours is unremovable. They can use it to follow wherever you go."

Carly hadn't thought about that. She didn't think about it for very long now, either. She shook her head.

"There's something I need to do," she said. "Staying here would just be giving up. As long as there's even a little bit of hope, I'm going to keep trying."

His expression shifted, very slightly. He sat down in one of the creaky chairs that stood along the edge of the dressing table.

"Tell me about it. Your dream," he said.

"Oh, um, well..." she said. She could feel her face heating. "I... I always wanted to be a reporter. I was going to travel the world and meet all sorts of people... I've always been inspired by watching people doing really big things, you know? I wanted to be right in the middle of it all..." She trailed off, feeling foolish. Jack didn't even seem to be paying attention to her anymore; he was staring off into space with a thoughtful expression.

"You want to meet great people," he said. He laughed. "I'll help you with that, then. I am going to be the greatest duelist this city has ever seen. I _am_ the greatest. Do you believe me?"

She looked at him. Dueling, she'd always been told, was a test of a player's spirit. Strategy and luck came into it, but it was said that when it all came down, the player with the strongest will came out on top. If that was true, then she was willing to bet that Jack won every time.

"I believe you," she said.

He looked pleased by her acceptance.

"We both have something we need to do out there," he said. "I'll help you now, but when the time comes, I'm going to want your help, too."

"What can I do?" she asked.

"I'm still deciding," he said. "Let me think on it. For now..." He stood up again. "For now, we have alot of work to do if we're going to escape this island."

"Right," she said. "Let's go."

**To Be Continued...**


	3. They Go Underground

**They Go Underground**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Over the next few days, Carly and Jack spent a lot of time watching. What they watched was the warehouse where stolen goods and other contraband was stored, preparatory to being shipped back to the mainland. Jack kept an eye over it during the day, and Carly observed it in the evenings after work. They took note of the movements of all the guards - got to know them all by sight, learned what paths they took and where they stood and when they went on and off their shifts, who they were friends with and what vehicles they drove. They singled out one officer in particular - a tall, slender fellow who didn't seem to have many friends on the force, and usually kept to himself. Once they'd selected their target and gathered all the information they could on him, they decided to put their plan into action.

Carly spent her last day at work fighting back butterflies. A part of her had wanted to skip the whole thing, to get the plan in motion straightaway, but she and Jack had reluctantly decided that they would need all the extra money they could get before they left for the mainland, and her meager paycheck was all they had going for them. As it was, she had been eating as little as possible so she could save every bit she could. She was not even sure she _could_ eat lunch today, jittery as she was. She sat a little apart from her friends, her hands folded in her lap, fidgeting and watching the clock.

"Hey, are you okay?" asked Nerve. "You aren't sick or something, are you?"

"No, I'm... I'm okay," she replied.

She looked around, checking for guards, and then beckoned her friends closer. They obediently slid nearer to her and bowed their heads close together.

"I met Jack," she said. "We've been planning how to escape. We're going to try to leave the island tonight."

Looks of shock flashed across their faces.

"You're really going to do it?" asked Nerve. "Isn't that dangerous?"

"We're going to try it anyway," she said. She looked around at them, realizing suddenly that if she left this island, she was probably never going to see any of them again. "I'm sorry I can't take any of you with me..."

"It's okay," said Blitz. "I've lived on this island all my life - even before the disaster. I'm not going to leave it now. I wouldn't even know what to do out there."

"Yeah, but you never belonged here," Taka told her. "Your home is out there."

"Just... be safe, okay?" said Nerve. "And if you do make it... _when_ you make it, let us know, okay?"

She nodded. "I'm going to be a famous reporter! You'll hear about me! I promise!"

"Hey, what are you four yakking about over there?" a guard shouted.

"Nothing!" said Nerve quickly.

"Just gossip," said Carly. "I was just telling them that last night I saw Kumazawa Keiko going into Pete Harris's house and she didn't come out for _five hours_, and _she says_ she was just helping him with the laundry, but _I_ don't see why it would take that long, so I think she was really..."

"Never mind, that's enough," said the guard, rolling his eyes. "I don't know why you think I care what you lot get up to in your spare time."

"Well, you asked," said Carly innocently.

The guard shuffled off. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"That was close," said Blitz. "Anyway, good luck out there. I hope you two make it."

"We will," she said. "You can count on it!"

The signal blared out, and everyone went back to work. Carly said little, but instead focused on studying her friends, memorizing every detail of their faces. If she was never going to see them again, she wanted to make sure she would remember everything about them.

At the end of the day, she collected her final payment and said goodbye to everyone, hugging them each in turn and promising once more to take care of herself. Then she hurried away. She was afraid if she stayed around any longer, she would start to cry, and she didn't want that to be her last memory of this place to end like that. Instead, she ran as fast as she could to the old theater, letting the wind dry her eyes, so that by the time she found Jack, she had at least outwardly regained her composure.

She found him where she'd expected him to be, in his room beneath the theater. He had found a canvas duffel bag from somewhere - patched and frayed, but still serviceable. He was filling it with what few personal items he owned. There was still plenty of room left in the bag.

"So... I guess it's time," she said.

Jack zipped up his bag. "It's time. Are you ready? No second thoughts?"

"No second thoughts," she said. She grinned sheepishly. "I'm a little nervous."

"You should be," he said. He tossed the bag to her. "Take it and let's go, before you change your mind."

"I'm not going to change my mind!" she protested, but he was already walking out the door. She made a noise of irritation and scrambled after him.

"You'd think this wasn't my idea or something," she muttered.

Meanwhile, unaware of the approaching danger, a guard was walking his usual route around the storage building. He yawned. It had been a slow night, thus far. You could always count on quiet nights while that Crow was in prison. He was the only one who was ever crazy enough to try to break into a place like this, where you could hardly throw a rock without hitting a Security officer. Not that anyone in their right minds would be throwing rocks at Security officers... He shook his head. He really needed to stop taking these late-night shifts. Maybe he would get a cup of coffee after he completed this lap...

As he rounded a corner of the building, he walked into something solid. It pushed him, and he staggered backwards, landing with a thump on his rear end. While he was still reeling from this unexpected assault, he heard a female voice say, "I'll take that," and a pair of hands pulled his helmet off of his head.

"Hey, what are you-" he began. Then someone hit him very hard in the back of the head, making him see stars. He crumpled into a heap with a grunt.

"I don't think he's out yet," the female voice said.

He tried to move, to say something, but it was too late. Whoever was behind him struck him again, and then everything went dark.

Carly and Jack looked down at the prone Security officer.

"You didn't kill him, did you?" asked Carly worriedly.

Jack crouched down next to him. "He's still breathing. We'd better worry more about what he'll do when he wakes up. Grab his legs."

The two of them picked up the officer and hauled him into the protective shelter of a nearby building. There, they quickly slapped a strip of duct tape over his mouth, and then divested him of all his clothing save for his socks and underwear, and bound his wrists and ankles with more tape. They left the still-unconscious man lying on the floor for someone to find later. Then Jack took off his own clothes and started pulling on the officer's uniform. Carly kept her back turned to him, but she couldn't resist stealing a quick covert glance. It was a serious situation, but if things went wrong she wanted to have something pleasant to reflect on while she was incarcerated for the rest of her life. As he was changing, a stray shaft of moonlight glinted off the necklace he was wearing - a pair of silvery rings on a chain. She wondered briefly about it. It occurred to her that she hadn't seen many people wearing jewelry on Satellite. Maybe some bits and scraps of metal cobbled together into ornaments, but jewels or precious metals were unusual. She wondered about it, but there wasn't time to ask.

When he was done, he folded all the clothing he'd been wearing and tucked it neatly inside the duffel bag. He turned to face Carly.

"How do I look?" he asked.

She turned around to look at him critically. With the officer's visored helmet hiding his face and hair, she thought that in the dark, he would easily be able to pass.

"Your tie is crooked," she said. "Here, let me.."

She untied it and redid it more neatly, and adjusted his lapels.

"There, now you look like a Security officer," she said. "You're sure you've got everything? You found his badge?"

"They're here," he said, indicating a pocket. "Don't _worry_ so much. We need to go, before someone notices he's missing."

"Right," she said. She took a deep breath. This was probably, she thought, the stupidest thing she had ever done, and a large part of her was so sick with nerves that she was ready to scream.

Fortunately, screaming was in the script, so that was all right.

A few moments later, a tall slender man in a Security officer's uniform approached the front of the warehouse, dragging a flailing young woman who clutched a battered bag under one arm. She writhed and kicked and squirmed, shrieking at the top of her lungs.

"Let me go! Let me go!" she shouted. "Get your hands off me, you big bully!"

"What's all this about?" said another officer, hurrying over to them.

"I caught this girl stealing," said Jack. "She's already been convicted once for it - you'd think she'd have gotten the message."

The other officer took out a handheld device and flicked a glowing screen out of its side. He tapped a few buttons.

"Nagisa Carly, age nineteen, convicted for attempted burglary... You're right. Looks like some people just don't get the message."

"I'm taking her back to the mainland," said Jack. "Maybe this time they won't be so quick to let her out of prison."

"Need a hand?" the other officer asked.

Jack shook his head. "You stay here and keep a lookout. She's got a bunch of shifty friends she hangs out with - some of them might be working with her."

"Right. Hurry back then."

Jack nodded and started towards the lot where the Security vehicles were parked. He and Carly had learned from careful observation that the vehicles were keyed to chips in the officers' security ID cards, and would turn on when any of them presented their cards to a scanner. He chose a nice large van with plenty of room in back for a passenger and tossed Carly into it. Then he let himself into the front and started the van.

"Do you know how to drive this thing?" Carly asked him.

"I have a general idea," he said.

"Please don't crash," she whimpered.

He revved the engine and put it into gear, and the van trundled ponderously down the battered streets towards the tunnel. Carly was relieved that he did not crash the van, and in fact handled it as if he'd been driving one all his life. She recalled his boasts that he was the greatest duelist in the world, and wondered if he had some experience with D-Wheels. She didn't get long to think about it, however, before they reached the gate, and Jack stopped to speak with the two guards who stood before it. She settled herself in the back and attempted to look like a sulky prisoner.

"What have you got there?" asked one of the guards.

"A thief," Jack said. "I caught her trying to rob the warehouse."

"First Crow, now this. I don't know what's wrong with these island idiots," the guard grumbled. "It must be something in the water around here that does it."

Jack murmured something that sounded like agreement, and the guard opened the gate and waved him through. The van started rolling again. They plunged into a tunnel lit by glaring neon tubes, and the rode in tense silence through the empty passageway. Carly could feel her pulse hammering in her throat. At any moment, she expected someone to realize their mistake and come chasing after them with sirens blaring. Instead, the silence stretched on, broken only by the murmur of the van's engine and the rush of the air flowing past them.

After what seemed like forever, they saw an opening ahead of them, and Jack stepped on the gas. The van gave a lurch and leaped forward, and they burst out into the light of the city. They were driving on a smooth road with a starry sky overhead, and the glistening buildings of Neo Domino spread out before them like a treasure hoard. Carly stared at it as if she'd never seen anything like it before. It had been barely a month since she'd left it, but it felt like another lifetime ago. A giggle rose up in her throat, and she let it spill out of her. Soon she was sobbing with hysterical laughter.

"We did it! We really did it!" she babbled. "I can't believe we did it! We really did it!"

For once, Jack had nothing disparaging to say. He merely smiled and gazed out at the city, his expression exultant. She could almost hear him thinking, "All this is going to be mine soon - you just wait and see!"

By the time Carly had steadied herself and wiped her tear-streaked face, Jack had found a mostly empty parking lot and guided the van into a slot. He got out and released her from the back, and then climbed in so that he could change into his old clothes. The officer's uniform and badge were left in the back of the van. Someone would find them eventually and wonder about them, but hopefully by then Jack and Carly would both be long gone.

"Well, miss master planner," said Jack, "your plan got us this far. What do you propose we do now?"

"Um," said Carly, blushing. "I... I hadn't thought that far ahead."

"I thought as much," he said. "Lucky for you, I _have_ been thinking."

The implied rebuke stung. Carly hung her head, feeling her elation flattening. "I did the best I could. Nobody else has ever gotten out of Satellite before. You couldn't have done it without me, you know."

"Carly," he said. He touched her chin, guiding her to look up at his eyes. "I don't expect you to think of everything. I have a plan, but it's going to take both of us working together. Can you trust me?"

She nodded. What other choice did she have? She didn't even have a car to sleep in, now.

"Good," said Jack. "Then we had better get moving. We have a lot of work to do tonight."

They left the lot and headed into the streets of the city. They skirted its edges, keeping well away from the brightly-lit business districts that were still doing a booming trade. Not everywhere was as pristine as the affluent city center, though, and they were able to find scruffy neighborhoods where their grungy appearance attracted little notice. Jack seemed to have an idea what he was looking for, and swept his gaze over the buildings and people they passed with an expression that suggested they weren't quite living up to his expectations.

Carly trudged along behind him, not looking at much of anything. She had not slept well the night before, kept awake by nerves, and she'd put in her usual long day at work. Now that her earlier dizzy elation had worn off, she was beginning to feel tired and a bit let-down. It would have been so nice to take a long hot bath and lie in a clean bed. She would have given a lot just to curl up in her old chair in the ruined library. Perhaps Jack noticed her weariness, or maybe he just wanted to get her out of the way, because he guided her down a particularly dark alley and tucked her into a nook behind some empty crates.

"Stay here a while," he said. "I'll be back. I'm going to get directions and some food."

Carly nodded drowsily and sat down, leaning against the stack of boxes. Jack took their bag of supplies and wandered off. Perhaps she dozed while he was gone, because it seemed like only a few seconds passed before he returned, carrying a plastic shopping bag. He pressed something warm into her hands.

"Here," he said. "Drink this."

_This_ turned out to be a large cup of coffee. Carly cradled it in her hands as though it were the water of life.

"Thank you, Jack!" she whispered fervently, and took a long drink. It was still hot enough to scald her tongue, but she drank it anyway. Coffee on Satellite was outrageously expensive, if you could find it at all, and generally tasted like mud.

"There's food, too," he said. "And this. You need it."

He dumped a large gray sweatshirt into her lap. She set her drink down long enough to have a look at it. The words "Neo Domino City" were stamped across the front in blue, along with an image of the city's skyline: a souvenir, or possibly a show of local loyalty. It was the sort of sweatshirt with a hood on it, and looked as though it was two or three sizes too large for her.

"What do I need this for?" she asked.

"So you don't stand out. Your clothes are filthy. Even without that mark, anyone can see you don't belong here."

"Oh. Right."

She pulled the sweatshirt on and pulled the hood up. The shirt _was_ too big for her, and the hood drooped down over her eyes. It wasn't a perfect disguise, but it would keep anyone from noticing the mark unless they peered too closely at her. Still, it was hardly the kind of disguise that would work forever, and she found herself wondering whether she was ever going to be able to look anyone in the eye again. Well, anyone but Jack. If she was only allowed to look at one person's eyes from now on, she could think of worse options.

While she was getting settled into her new clothing, Jack was rummaging around in the shopping bag and spreading out napkins on the ground, as though preparing for a picnic. He set out a pair of sandwiches wrapped in clear plastic, two bags of chips, two apples, two bananas, and six candy bars. Carly felt her mouth begin to water. It felt like years since she'd even _seen_ chocolate. Disregarding everything she knew about proper nutrition, she reached for one of the candy bars and tore the wrapping off. She took a large bite and closed her eyes, feeling the sweet, sticky candy melting on her tongue. Her stomach growled, reminding her that she had eaten next to nothing since yesterday, and had put in a hard day since then. She made the rest of the chocolate disappear in record time and reached for a second piece.

"That's right," said Jack. "You need something to keep you awake."

She nodded, her mouth full, and reached for a sandwich with her free hand. "What are we going to do now?"

Jack picked up a banana, contemplated it a moment as though uncertain of its purpose, and began carefully peeling it.

"We're going underground," he said.

"Underground?" Carly repeated, looking down at the street. "You mean, to hide?"

"Not _that_ kind of underground," said Jack impatiently. "Underground dueling. I spent most of our money on this, and that's the fastest way to get more."

"Um. Isn't that, you know, illegal?"

Jack gave her a look. "And your point is?"

"Oh yeah, right. But - but underground dueling is dangerous! I mean, people get hurt down there..."

"I won't," said Jack, smiling wolfishly. "Other people might."

Carly decided that this was a good time to shut up and eat her sandwich.

It took astonishingly little time to make the food disappear. Carly thought she had never eaten such a good meal. Jack seemed to be enjoying it too; he savored the cheap gas-station coffee as though it were the finest champagne. While the two of them ate, Jack explained a bit more of his plans. He might not have ever been to the mainland himself, but he had met some of the people who had, for one reason or another, been shipped over to the island. Underground dueling was one of the more common offenses that could get someone deported, so he'd had ample opportunity to learn how the game worked.

"Once we get there, I want you to bet everything we've got on me," he said. "No one will pay much attention to you. The audience wears masks to keep anyone from being able to identify them. Paying to see an underground duel is just as illegal as being in one. No one will think there's anything unusual about hiding your face."

Carly decided not to ask what they were going to do if it happened that he didn't win. She had the feeling that not winning wasn't an option. Instead, she tossed her apple core into the trash can and drained the last of her coffee.

"I think I'm ready," she said. "Do you know where we're going?"

Jack nodded. "I asked a few questions while I was in there. I think we can find it. Do you know where Night Street is?"

"Um," she said. "The place everyone always told me not to go?"

"You're safe with me. Tell."

"It's east of here - about three miles," she answered.

"Then we'd better get walking. Are you done eating?"

Carly nodded. The butterflies in her stomach were back. There were, she was realizing, only so many laws she could break in a day before her nerves really started to feel the strain. A voice in the back of her head was telling her pointedly that she had never even seen Jack duel - never even laid eyes on his deck - and if it turned out that his boasts were nothing more than bluster, then they were both going to be in very deep trouble. On the other hand, she had no other plans, and no one else to turn to but him. In retrospect, she thought she should have put a little more thought into her escape plans, but it was too late now.

"Let's go," she said.

With Carly leading the way, they worked their way towards Night Street. The road had a different name on the map, but the locals all called it a name more appropriate to its shady reputation. Once every couple of months, Security forces would sweep through and clean the place up a bit, but things always went back to normal again eventually. Night Street was where the residents of Neo Domino went when they were bored of being peaceful and law-abiding and wanted some racier entertainment. There were a few clubs nestled on the seedy thoroughfare that only the most affluent could afford, despite the fact that the outsides looked ready for someone to come hang a "condemned" notice on them. Some of them, though, were every bit as run-down as they appeared. Jack sought out one of these and stepped into a smoky bar full of apathetic-looking men and women sipping cheap alcoholic drinks and smoking things that didn't smell like cigarettes. The patrons stirred a little as the newcomers arrived, and Carly felt her stomach clench as she realized that everyone in the room was watching her and Jack suspiciously. She fought the urge to grip his arm for reassurance. Instead, she pulled the hood of her shirt down a little lower, trying to keep her face hidden. Jack ignored everything and sauntered up to the bar, leaning on it as casually as if he owned the place.

"Get you something?" asked the bartender warily.

"I'm looking for information," said Jack.

"Try a library."

Jack brushed the remark aside. "I'm looking for someone to duel."

The bartender's expression took on a shade of interest.

"I wouldn't know anything about that," he said. "Try that guy in the corner. He might know something."

Jack nodded and drifted into the back of the room, where a lone man in a long black coat was sipping disinterestedly at a glass of red wine. His attention was focused on Jack.

"So, you fancy yourself a duelist?" he asked.

"I _am_ a duelist," Jack replied.

"That's what they all say," the man answered boredly. "The question is whether or not you have the courage to back your claim up."

"I'll take on anyone who wants to challenge me," said Jack.

"Anyone?" the man repeated, raising an eyebrow.

Jack nodded. "I'm the best there is."

"_Are_ you? Well, well. I can't hear a claim like that without wanting to put it to the test. What do you say we step downstairs together, and you can give me a little demonstration?"

"Gladly," said Jack.

The man stood, beckoning for Jack to follow, and Carly, not knowing what else to do, trotted along behind the two of them. Their guide led them through a door and down a flight of stairs into a dimly lit basement. The only real light, in fact, was a pair of spotlights trained on a stage just large enough to accommodate a duel. Scattered around the stage were a number of tables where people sat sipping drinks and watching the entertainment. An unpleasant-looking and none-too-clean man was doing battle with a leather-clad woman, to the voluble enjoyment of the crowd.

"You can take the next round, if you'd like," said the dark man magnanimously. "Show everyone what you're made of."

"I will," said Jack. He gestured to Carly, who obediently handed him his bag. He produced a Duel Disk and a deck from its depths, before throwing the bag back to her. "I'm ready whenever you are."

"Just take a place next to the stage and wait your turn," the man replied. He turned to Carly. "And will you be enjoying the night's festivities?"

She nodded. "I want to place a bet."

"On your friend here, I assume," the man replied. He gave Jack a critical look. "I give him eight to one odds against."

Carly started to agree, and then noticed that Jack, standing a little behind the other man, was gesturing to her. He held up three fingers, then tapped his wrist as if pointing to an imaginary watch.

"What if I bet that he'll win in three minutes or less?" she asked.

The man laughed. "I'd say you were out of your mind. But if that's what gives you pleasure... let's call it forty to one."

Jack nodded slightly, and Carly said, "I'll take it."

Trying not to look nervous, she passed her money - every last yen she had - into the hands of the dark man, who made it vanish into a pocket with professional speed. In exchange, he gave her a ticket with the amount she'd bet and the odds written on it.

"Please, take any seat in the house," he told her. "And allow me to present you with a little souvenir of your visit."

He stepped aside long enough to fish in a cardboard box that rested against one wall and pull out a plastic carnival mask. Carly obligingly accepted it and went to find a seat where she would have a good view, and hopefully avoid some of the rough characters that were hanging around. Fortunately, they all seemed more interested in what was happening on the stage.

At length, the woman in the leather outfit was victorious, and her victory was greeted by cheers from some of the spectators and shouts of anger from others, presumably the ones who had bet against her. The man who had taken Carly's bet circulated, paying out winnings to those who waved tickets at him. Meanwhile, another man with a microphone stepped out into center stage.

"Our next duelist is a newcomer here, ladies and gentleman. What will it be tonight? Will we witness a new rising star? Or another victim to our champion? It's up to you to place your bets for - or against - our special guest tonight, Jack Atlus!"

The spotlight turned to beam down on Jack, who stood there proudly, for all the world as if this were almost too petty to be worth his trouble. There was a murmur of interest from the crowd as they sized him up. Once again, the man in the black coat began circulating and taking bets. He didn't come anywhere near Carly, since he had her money already, but she could hear what people at other tables were saying. She got the impression that Jack was not a great favorite to win, and once again, she felt a queasy feeling of dread wash over her. She fought it back. She knew Jack better than they did, and she _knew_ he would win. She twisted the handle of the duffel bag with suddenly sweaty hands.

"Welcome to the underground, pretty boy," said the champion, smiling wickedly at him. "Enjoy your stay. It won't last long."

"That's one thing we agree on," Jack replied. "I'm going straight to the top. You should just consider yourself lucky to have the honor of being my first step."

She laughed. "Just play cards, blondie."

Jack, for once in his life, did as he was told. Within a single turn, he'd lowered her life points by nearly half, and in two more, she'd been demolished completely. The audience, which had been watching in rapt silence, erupted into shouts. Carly simply sat and stared. That last move, when he'd summoned that incredible red dragon...

_He might really be the best duelist in this city!_

"Here, you - you've still got your ticket, don't you?"

Carly snapped back to the present, and saw that the man she'd placed her bet with was back. He was offering her a fat wad of cash.

"Go on, take it," he said. "You're the only person in this room to bet on your friend, there. He's made me a bundle tonight."

She considered, and then pushed the money back to him. "I'm betting on him to win the next round, too."

"As you wish, then."

Carly received another ticket, which she quickly tucked away so she couldn't lose it. Around her, she could hear other people placing their own bets, trying to recoup their losses. Some of them were betting on a repeat performance, but most of them seemed convinced that there was no way he could pull off such a spectacular win again. Carly just smiled and settled in to enjoy the show.

Jack played three more duels that night, and won each of them handily. The audience wanted to see more, but Jack ignored them, saying he had done enough for one night. Carly saw him step off the stage and wander off with the man in the black coat, but she wasn't worried for him now. He obviously had the situation well in hand. The proof of that was the stack of money she had collected as her winnings. It was nice having it; it made her feel as though she had something under control. In fact, she was so relieved and pleased by the outcome of the games, and so tired from the night's activity, that before she'd even finished counting it all, she'd fallen into an exhausted sleep.

She didn't even stir when a man ambled out of the shadows, pulled up a chair, and sat down beside her.

**To Be Continued...**


	4. They Hire Help

**They Hire Help**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Mikage was wrapping up her paperwork. There were some days where she suspected that despite her status as the Director's assistant, despite the impressive official titles she claimed, she had still been hired on primarily to do paperwork. Most days, she tried not to think about it, but on nights like tonight, it annoyed her. She had _trained_ to do field-work. She had asked for a job on the regular force and been told that there were no openings there, but that the Director was looking for a new assistant if she would like to apply for that. She considered it sexism. Who said women were only good for being secretaries, anyway? She sighed as she surveyed the mountains of forms left to deal with, and wondered why the Vice-Director couldn't deal with some of this.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on her office door. She glanced up, glad for a distraction, in time to see the Director let himself in.

"Mikage. I hope I am not disturbing you." His tone suggested that he didn't particularly care if he had disturbed her or not.

"No, Director," she said, bowing her head politely. "I was just finishing up."

"Good, because I have a job for you." He walked over to her desk and laid a pair of file folders on top of the stack of papers she had been working on. "There has been an incident. Two people escaped from Satellite this evening.

Mikage's head snapped up. An escape? It seemed impossible, but surely the Director wouldn't joke about something so serious. "How did they do that?"

"It appears that one of them disguised himself as a Security officer and escaped under the pretense of taking his partner into custody," Director Goodwin replied. "The news hasn't gotten out yet. I don't want the people of the city to hear about this. This is to be a strict secret, do you understand?"

"Yes, sir," said Mikage. She was still reeling. She had never heard of anyone escaping from the island... at least, not and living to tell about it. There were rumors of a man who had launched a D-Wheel off the bridge, but the odds of him surviving that and making it to the mainland without being noticed were so minimal that she'd always suspected that he was dead now, if he'd ever existed at all. But if two people were confirmed to have escaped...

"These two need to be captured as quickly as possible," Goodwin continued. "One of them is a man by the name of Jack Atlus. He is a Satellite native but with no previous criminal record. He is known to have a rare and valuable Duel Monsters card in his possession. I want him captured _alive_, and the card confiscated. Anything else is not an option."

"Yes, sir," Mikage replied. "What about the other?"

"The other is a woman named Nagisa Carly. She is a drifter with a criminal record - a known thief. She can be dealt with by whatever means you find necessary," said Goodwin. "I want the matter settled quietly, however, so I am putting you in charge of overseeing it. I have great faith in your ability to be discreet."

"Thank you, sir!" she said. "I won't let you down."

"Be sure that you don't," Goodwin replied. "Feel free to avail yourself of whatever resources you need, as long as you don't cause a scene."

"Of course, sir. Thank you."

"Those folders should contain any additional information that you need. I will expect regular updates on your progress. However, I have a project of my own to attend to, so I will be expecting you to work largely without supervision."

"I understand."

"Good. In the meantime, you are free to delegate any of your other duties however you deem necessary. This assignment should be your top priority."

"Is it really that important?" she wondered.

Goodwin gave her a look, fixing his cold green eyes on her. "We cannot have the people of our city knowing that there are criminals like these among them. If they believed that the residents of Satellite could leave whenever they wanted, they would panic. We must maintain the trust of our citizens. Don't you agree?"

"Yes, sir," she replied. What else could she say?

"Good," he said. "If you have any more questions...?"

"No, sir," she said. "I'll let you know if I think of something."

"Very well. I leave the matter in your capable hands."

The Director glided out of the room as serenely as he'd entered it. Mikage sat back into her chair, taking a few calming breaths. There was something about the Director that always made her feel as though the room had gone a few degrees colder.

But now she had a project! She actually had something useful to do, something that didn't involve filling out forms and making sure everything was properly sorted and filed. She thought hopefully that if she did a good job with this, perhaps she would be allowed to do this sort of work more often. Filled with ambition, she settled in to read the files.

She opened the first one and studied the top page, which included a picture of a young woman with long dark hair and thick glasses, looking morosely at the camera. Mikage was slightly surprised to realize that the criminal the Director had spoken of was so young, but she told herself that some people were just born that way. She set the file aside to be examined more closely later. The second file showed her a blurrier image - it had obviously been taken from a distance, and in a hurry. Even so, she could tell that the man in the picture was attractive, and she felt strangely glad that the Director didn't seem to want him to come to any harm.

_He's the one Director Goodwin really seems to want me to find. I'll just read this one first,_ she decided, and set about finding out everything she could about this mysterious man.

* * *

Someone had bought Jack a drink. He had a feeling it was one of the people who had bet on him in his final duel, and therefore had a bit more cash than they had started with, but he wasn't about to turn down free drinks when they were offered. He did, however, insist on the drink being ginger ale. He might be doing well so far, but that was no reason to let down his guard. Tonight was the last night he needed for his wits to be dulled by alcohol. He gulped the beverage down thirstily, relishing the cold of it on his throat. That last duelist had put up more of a fight than he'd expected, and he'd had to exert himself a little to arrange the kind of spectacular finish he'd wanted. _Losing_ was not a possibility, but you didn't prove you were the greatest duelist since Mutou Yugi by winning by the skin of your teeth.

"You know, you could go a long way, here," said the man in the black coat. Jack had tried and failed to discover some sort of name to apply to him, and had concluded that if he had one, he didn't want anyone to know it. "You have quite a stage presence. We could make room for you as a regular - you'd draw a crowd."

"You won't make any money off of me," he said. "I always win."

"You let me worry about how to manage that angle. I know how to make the odds work in my favor," the dark man replied. "What do you say? I'll make you a good offer. You can even have a cut of my profits. Ten percent - along with whatever your lady friend there is sharing with you. She _is_ sharing with you, isn't she?"

"That's none of your business," said Jack.

It occurred to him that he'd been separated from Carly for a while, and that he was not entirely sure what she was doing at the moment. Deciding that she was more important than whatever this man wanted, he said, "I'll think about your offer and get back to you." He downed the last of his drink at a gulp and left to look for Carly.

He found her with her head resting on top of a table, plainly sound asleep. Sitting next to her was a man Jack had never seen before - a scruffy-looking fellow with the beginnings of a beard and an equally sparse mustache, and a head of unruly brown hair. He was taking pulls from a bottle of beer with an attitude that suggested nonchalance, but Jack didn't believe it for a moment.

"Who are you and what are you doing?" Jack demanded.

"Relax," said the stranger. "Pull up a chair. Don't bark at me - I'm doing you a favor."

"I'll believe that when I see it," said Jack, but he sat down anyway.

"I'm just keeping an eye on your friend here," the stranger replied. "This isn't a safe place to sleep, especially if you've got a lot of money with you. You can count it, but it's all there - I didn't touch it. You earned it, after all."

"Hmph," said Jack. "Generous of you."

"What can I say? I'm a nice guy," the man replied. He raised his bottle to Jack in a mocking toast before draining it. "And because I'm such a nice guy, I'm going to give you a little advice: don't waste your time here. Just don't get involved."

"And why not?" Jack replied.

"If you're waiting for me to say you're too good for this place, forget it. You're good, all right, I admit that. I've never seen your equal, and I've seen a lot. But you won't get anywhere here. They'll get their hooks into and they'll suck you dry. If you're thinking of going to the Pros by making a name for yourself here, you can forget it. It won't happen."

"Lucky for me, that's not what I'm trying to do," said Jack. "I'm only staying here long enough to earn some money. I have a plan."

"Oh?" said the man, raising an eyebrow. "What do you plan to do with the money, then?"

"I'm going to get a good computer with internet access, and a good digital camera," he said. "And I'll need a D-Wheel eventually, but those come first."

"And what are you going to do with a computer and a camera?" the man asked. "Edit yourself into the Pro Leagues?"

"I'm going to become a celebrity," said Jack.

"Right. Good luck with that."

"Think what you want," Jack answered impatiently. "It's no concern of yours."

The man cast a glance at Carly. "And I suppose she's going to help you?"

"Yes," said Jack firmly.

"No," the man replied. "Not with that mark, she's not."

"How did you..." Jack began, and then looked again. Carly's mask had gone askew when she laid her head on the table, and the edge of her golden marker glittered faintly in the dim light. Jack reached to adjust the mask before anyone else could notice, glaring daggers at the stranger.

"You can cover it up all you want," the man said. "It doesn't matter. Security can find her wherever she goes. Unless..."

Jack gave the man a wary look. "Unless what?"

"There are a few talented hackers who know how to scramble marker signals. Get one of those on your side, and you won't have to worry about her being traced." The man gave him a wry grin. "Have I mentioned I'm looking for a job?"

_So that's his angle,_ Jack thought. A simple enough motive: pure desire for money. Fair enough. That was, after all, why he was there as well.

"So you can scramble signals," he said aloud.

The man nodded. "And I have a computer I can let you use. I can probably get a camera."

"What's in it for you?"

"Like I said, I need a job," he said, shrugging. "I'm a freelancer - I do whatever anyone needs doing that they don't want to risk doing themselves. Security's been tightening up lately and there hasn't been a lot of call for my skills. And I owe some money, and people will be pounding on my door soon if I don't get some cash in a hurry. So, cut me in on your profits and you've got yourself a hacker for hire."

Jack considered. The mark _was_ a liability, and having it neutralized would be a tremendous help. And if this man could provide him with the equipment he needed, Jack could start saving for a D-Wheel right away. Assuming he could trust this shady character, of course.

"I can give you twenty-five percent," he said.

"Make it thirty-five and I'll find you a place to sleep for the night."

Jack shook his head. "A three-way split is only thirty-three. You're asking more than your fair share."

"All right, a three-way split," the man agreed. "You aren't going to get a better deal. Are you in?"

"Let me see the place first. I'll pay you when we get there," said Jack. "Assuming you're telling the truth."

"Smart," said the man. He stood and offered a hand. "The name's Saiga."

"Jack Atlus," Jack replied, clasping the offered hand briefly. "That's Carly."

"Charmed," said Saiga. "Come on. Let's get out of this dump."

Jack stood up and prodded at Carly.

"Wake up," he said. "We're going."

"Wha...? Jack, where are we?"

"It doesn't matter. We're leaving anyway," Jack told her. "Get your things together and let's go."

Carly, still looking half-asleep, began to gather up her things. Then she noticed they had company and stopped to stare at him.

"Who is that?" she demanded.

"He says his name is Saiga. I've hired him to help us."

"You hired me," said Saiga with a bark of laughter. "That's a good one."

"I agreed to pay you. That's all it takes to hire someone," said Jack.

"Oh, this is going to be fun. I can see it coming," said Carly, obviously cranky from being woken up. Jack ignored her. Instead, he grabbed their bag and finished piling their winnings into it, and unceremoniously hauled her out of her seat and towards the door.

Once they were outside, Saiga led them down the shadowy street, past more bars and clubs, past a suspicious-looking bookshop and a shabby liquor store, and finally up to a large blocky building that looked as though it might have been a warehouse at one point in its history. The inside didn't do anything to correct the impression: the ground floor was largely open space, with some work tables scattered here and there, and computer parts and equipment _everywhere_, including on the chairs and the floor. Jack had the feeling that he was back in one of Satellite's scrap heaps.

"Don't mind the mess. It's better upstairs," said Saiga.

"It couldn't be much worse," said Carly, picking her way through the junk.

At the very back of the room was a narrow staircase, leading to the building's second floor. As promised, it was somewhat better than the ground level, mostly in terms of being cleaner. Other than that, there wasn't a lot that could be said for it. There was a pocket-sized kitchen, a bath just large enough to turn around in, a bedroom, and a couple of rooms that were empty save for a few cardboard boxes stacked in one corner. All of it was painfully bare of color and comfort.

"Rooms. Exactly as promised," said Saiga, pointing to the empty storage space. "I didn't say there would be anything in them."

"We'll manage," said Jack, cutting off any objections Carly might have had. "But first I want to know a few things."

Saiga leaned on a counter. "Ask away."

"First of all, who are you? And why are you asking us for a job?" Jack asked.

"Like I told you, I'm hard up for cash," said Saiga, shrugging. "I owe bought some equipment on a loan and I haven't paid it off, and the creditors are starting to give me a hard time. I don't want anyone sniffing around too closely and finding out what else I've been up to lately."

"Like scrambling marker signals?" Jack inquired.

"That and other things. I do what I have to do to make ends meet."

Carly peered at him curiously. "You can really do that? Fix my marker?"

"I can't get rid of it, but yeah, I can fix it so Security won't find you," Saiga replied. "I'll do it right now, if you want."

"Not just yet."

Carly turned and gave Jack a pleading look. "But Jack, they're going to come looking for me soon..."

"Just a minute," said Jack. He turned back to Saiga. "That explains why you need money. It doesn't explain why you came to us."

Saiga gave him a crooked smile. "All right, you've got me. I admit - I'm impressed by your guts. Maybe not your brains, but... yeah, you've got guts, trying to fight your way to the top from the underground. Nobody ever does that."

"Nobody's ever escaped Satellite, either," said Jack.

That got a look of genuine surprise out of Saiga. He gave them a long stare, as though seeing them for the first time. Then he nodded.

"I think I signed up with the right crew," he said. "You two are definitely going to be interesting." He laughed suddenly. "Besides, I would have gone crazy wondering what you were going to do with the computer and the camera."

"Ooh, is there a camera?" said Carly, brightening with professional interest. "The Security people took mine away. They said it was _evidence_."

"There isn't one yet, but we'll get you one," said Jack.

"So you've made up your minds to stay?" asked Saiga.

"I'll stay if you'll get me my camera!" Carly said.

Saiga laughed. "Let's deal with that marker first. If you two have really escaped the island, we'll have Security officers all over us faster than your friend there can win a duel, unless we turn that thing off."

Carly agreed that this was probably a good idea, though Jack could tell from the wistful look on her face that she would have preferred the camera first. Saiga led them into his room, which was mostly taken up with computers, though nowhere as badly as the ground floor had been. Jack took a seat on the edge of the bed while Carly hovered nervously behind Saiga, peering over his shoulder. Saiga ignored both of them and booted up his computer. Once it was on, he launched a program and began typing rapidly.

"While I'm doing this," he said, "why don't you two tell me a little more about what I'm letting myself in for."

So while he was tinkering, Carly filled him in on how she had ended up in Satellite, and she and Jack both detailed how they had made their escape. Saiga listened attentively, his fingers a blur on the keyboard.

"Looks like I called it right," he said. "You two are going to be interesting to have around."

He hit the enter key, and the computer hummed and buzzed as it processed whatever he'd told it to do. Carly suddenly put her hand to her cheek as though a bug had landed on it.

"Oh! That feels weird!" she complained.

"Means its working. It'll cool off in a moment," said Saiga.

She rubbed at the mark before letting her hand fall back to her side. Jack thought he saw a faint flicker like the smallest of electric sparks run over the mark before subsiding.

"It's better now. Thanks," she said.

"No problem. The way you tell it, you never deserved it in the first place," said Saiga. He glanced back to Jack. "If it's a computer you need for this master plan, you can't do much better than this one. What did you need it for?"

"Carly is going to start a blog," said Jack.

"I am?" she asked.

"Of course," he said. "You wanted to be a famous reporter, didn't you? Well, I'm going to make you famous."

* * *

Ushio arrived early for his evening shift, and found himself with time on his hands. He loitered around in the lobby, exchanging greetings with people he knew and wondering if he dared to risk getting a drink from the communal coffeepot. He had always liked his job, and in fact preferred to be doing it rather than to be at home doing nothing in particular. He was ready for things to get started, and slightly irritated at having to wait to punch in. He was just looking at the clock and wondering if there was enough time to go to the coffee shop to get a snack when he noticed that his commanding officer was coming through a side door in the company of a woman holding a briefcase. Ushio stared.

_Oh, nice! Very, very nice..._

She was a singularly lovely lady, no mistake there - petite and dainty, with long shapely legs and a narrow waist, and a pair of breasts he would have traded in his badge to get better acquainted with. There definitely needed to be more women like her around. He wondered what she was doing there. She didn't look like a Security officer, that was for sure.

_It sure would be nice if she'd come over here and talk to me._

He gave a small snort, shaking his head at the idea. Women like her didn't talk to guys like him, at least not because they wanted his company. They might if they'd had something stolen or thought there was a prowler in their yard, but thy didn't want to spend time with him socially. Not that he'd never had any luck with women. He was never going to win any prizes for looks, but he kept himself in good condition, and a Security uniform could make up for a lot of shortcomings. Even so, the women he managed to attract were the sort who could be attracted by buying them a couple of beers and telling a few self-aggrandizing and mostly true stories about capturing criminals on the dangerous streets of Satellite, and even then, they tended not to stick around for very long. He doubted that sort of thing would work on this woman, anyway. He would not have been surprised to discover that she didn't know what beer tasted like. She was probably the sort who drank fine wine or exotic tea. She probably read books - thick serious ones, the kind he'd tried to avoid reading in school. She was definitely out of his league - too good for him. Still, no harm in looking...

Suddenly, he realized that his commanding officer was pointing directly at him, and the beautiful woman turned to look at him, too. Ushio automatically straightened up, squaring his shoulders and throwing out his chest. The woman turned back to the man she'd been speaking to, nodded politely, and began walking in Ushio's direction.

_She's coming this way! What do I do?_ In an instant, his desire to talk to her had been obliterated by a realization that he had absolutely no idea what to say to her. Which was a shame, because she was even prettier up close. She looked up at him with a pair of heart-melting amber eyes, regarding him inquisitively.

"Excuse me," she said. "Officer Ushio Tetsu?"

_She knows my name!_

"Er... yeah! Yeah, that's me," he said, somehow managing to get his brain in gear again. "What can I do for you?"

She produced a badge from inside her jacket and held it up for display. "I'm Special Inspector Mikage Sagiri, assistant to the Director. Your supervisor has recommended you for a special mission, so you're being reassigned. From now until further notice, you'll be reporting directly to me."

_Yes! Thank you, thank you, oh thank you..._

"You can count on me, Inspector Sagiri," he said, snapping a smart salute.

She gave him a small smile that nevertheless made his heart turn flipflops.

"It's Mikage, please. If we're going to be working together, there's no reason to insist on formalities."

"Right. Of course," he said. If that was what she wanted, he wasn't going to argue. She could call him whatever she liked. "Whatever you say. So, uh... what's this special mission all about?"

Mikage glanced around. "It really is highly classified. Is there somewhere we could talk privately?"

"Of course, Inspe... Mikage. Right this way," Ushio said.

_I love my job!_

Fairly bursting with pride, he guided Mikage into a conference room in a quiet part of the building, one that was usually used for private meetings with important people, and was therefore comfortably furnished, somewhere between a board room and someone's parlor. There was a deep rose-colored carpet on the floor and soft watercolors on the wall, and a glossy wooden table lined with cushiony leather-upholstered chairs on rollers. Ushio politely drew out one of these for Mikage before seating himself. He arranged himself in a listening position, watching her intently. Mikage placed her briefcase on the table and opened it up, producing some file folders and sheaves of papers, all neatly tabbed and organized. While she was occupied with this, Ushio managed to get a good look at her left hand. No ring, he noted. Good.

_She's your commanding officer and she's not interested,_ said a small and rapidly dwindling part of his brain. The other part responded wistfully, _But she's so cute..._

"You understand, of course, that what you are about to hear is in strictest confidence," she was saying, and he forced himself to pay attention to what she was saying, and not just the sweet sound of her voice. "If this gets out, it could start a panic."

"I understand! My lips are sealed."

"Very good," she replied. "Sometime earlier this evening, two people escaped from Satellite."

"What?" Ushio yelped. "But that's..."

"Impossible, yes. But apparently not that impossible, because they did it. They set an ambush for a security officer, knocked him unconscious, stole his uniform and badge, and the male perpetrator disguised himself as an officer and pretended to arrest his partner and take her to the mainland. The two of them stole a vehicle and drove it through the Security access tunnel. The van was found in a parking lot a few miles from the exit, with the stolen uniform and badge inside. Their whereabouts are currently unknown."

"Of all the-!" Ushio spluttered. This recitation of events had distracted him sufficiently; he was _furious_. Attacking an officer, making a mockery of the Security forces - that was low. "Who are these people?"

"Here," she said, pushing the file folders to him. "See for yourself."

He opened the first and took a look at it, frowning a little.

"I remember this guy," he said. "One of that gang, what'd they call themselves? Some stupid name. Team Satisfaction, that's it."

Mikage frowned. "It was one of them that bombed the building, wasn't it?"

"Right," said Ushio. "Their leader. He should rot in jail forever for that. I dunno about the other three - they all cooperated with the law and got him turned in. There was a lot less trouble on the island when they were around. Kept the gang warfare down. Too bad their leader turned out to be a nut... Huh, wonder if this was his idea first."

"That's an idea I hadn't thought of," said Mikage, looking surprised - and Ushio thought, or hoped, vaguely appreciative. "I'll put it on the list of things to consider." Suiting action to words, she produced a yellow legal pad and a pen from somewhere within the briefcase and started taking notes. Ushio had a sudden intuition that she was the sort of woman who always had exactly what she needed on hand, and always knew where _everything_ was - the kind who never lost socks in the wash, and not only had fully charged batteries in her flashlight, but knew where the flashlight was.

Ushio peered inside the other folder. "This girl's marked. Can't she be traced?"

"That's the first thing we tried," said Mikage. "Something is blocking our signal. She must have found some way to scramble it. We'll keep trying, of course, in case she lets her guard down, but it looks as though this is going to have to be done with old-fashioned legwork. That's where you come in. Your supervisor recommended you to me, and I'm going to trust in his judgment. Someone has to find these two, and quickly, before word gets out that it's possible for people to leave Satellite. You know how people are - if word of this escapes, the rumors are going to mutate, and people will be saying that an army of hardened criminals are killing off Security officers and preparing the storm the city. People will panic. I've been given the job, and I'm trusting you to help me."

She fixed him with those eyes again, and his anger at the criminals melted away into a glow of pride and eagerness to please.

"You've come to the right man for the job," he said, with some honesty. "If anyone can find these punks, it's me. You'll see!"

"Very good," she said. "I've arranged for you to have command over a small group of patrolmen, if you need backup, but if there's anything else you need, ask me and I can get it for you. The Director has authorized me to approve whatever measures it takes to remedy this situation. Only..."

"Yeah?"

"He was very insistent that this man, Jack Atlus, be brought in alive."

"Is there some reason why I wouldn't? Is he armed or something?"

"I have no idea," Mikage admitted. "We just don't know enough yet. But the Director was very clear that he must be captured alive, and I don't dare disobey him. So... just be careful, and do the job right."

"Absolutely! You've got it!" Ushio said. "I won't let you down."

"I'm sure you won't," she said, with a smile that endeared her to him forever. "You should start right away. It's only a matter of time before word of this gets out. Here." She turned over a page in her yellow notepad and scribbled something down. "Here is how you can get in touch with me if something comes up. Let me know if you find anything useful, even if it's the middle of the night."

Ushio assured her he would do exactly that, and with a few final words of parting, hurried out to begin his job. He walked with a spring in his step as he headed for the Security garage to borrow a vehicle. He felt surprisingly good. He had been telling Mikage the truth: he _was_ the right man for this job. Long before he'd joined the force, he'd spent his teenaged years as a juvenile thug, and while he had cleaned up his act and put that part of his life behind him long ago, he still had the old instincts with him. He had a natural affinity for dark, gritty places where people gathered to make trouble, and he knew how those people thought better than most of these young recruits who had lived their whole lives in the squeaky-clean parts of Neo Domino. It was why Ushio had been assigned Satellite as his jurisdiction, and why he'd been doing a good job with it for so many years. If anyone could find two runaways from the island, he could.

Besides, he'd just gotten a beautiful woman's phone number and an offer to call any time, and that wasn't something he got every day.

* * *

Yusei sat on an old plastic tarp, surrounded by tools and bits of metal. In front of him was most of an engine, which he'd succeeded in taking apart and was now trying to put back together again properly. His friend Rally sat next to him like an alert pupil watching his master at work, eyes trained intently on whatever Yusei was doing, turning to follow every movement of his hands.

"Could you reach that wrench for me, please?" Yusei asked, gesturing towards the tool, and Rally scrambled to grab it and hand it to him. Yusei almost smiled. He didn't really need any help with this project, and perhaps could have gotten it done a lot faster without having someone else in the way, but if Rally wanted to help, he deserved the chance. While Yusei had been working non-stop on this engine for weeks on end, Rally had been scouring Satellite for the parts that Yusei needed for what would eventually become a D-Wheel of his own. The others had pitched in, too, filching bits and pieces off the conveyor belts at the trash plant whenever they could get away with it. Even Martha had found a tool he'd needed stashed away in her attic. This bike was going to be a group effort. Even if he couldn't go very far with it, it would be worth it just to _have_ it.

"Is it almost done?" asked Rally, unable to contain his excitement.

"Almost," Yusei promised. "It might not be done today, but definitely soon."

"Tomorrow?"

"Not tomorrow. Next week, maybe."

Rally brightened. "Really? That soon? Wow! I want to be the first to ride it!"

"I'm going to ride it first," Yusei corrected gently. "Once I'm sure it all works, though, then I'll take you for a ride."

Rally gave an eager whoop. "I can't wait! ...One day I'm going to have one myself. Then I'll duel you!"

"We can duel later, if you want," said Yusei. "Not on a D-Wheel, though."

The sound of footsteps heralded the arrival of the rest of their friends. Yusei took that as a signal to stand up. He stretched carefully, feeling bones pop back into place. How long had he been sitting there like that? Time seemed to flow differently when he was working on a project.

"Yusei, Rally, you home?" Blitz called, as he walked into the room.

"We're here," said Rally. "Guess what? Yusei says he's almost done!"

"Sounds like you've had a busy day, too, then," said Taka.

Yusei tilted his head inquiringly. "Were you busy?"

"We weren't," said Nerve, "but Jack was."

"Jack?" Yusei repeated.

"You remember us telling you about that girl Carly, right?" said Nerve, eager to be the source of news. "Turns out she and Jack were plotting to get off the island, and today they finally did it."

"Jack _left?_" Yusei repeated.

"We checked," said Taka, nodding. "All his old hangouts are empty, and all his stuff is gone. Carly's place was empty, too. And we haven't heard anything about anybody getting arrested, so..."

"Turn on your computer," said Nerve. "Maybe there's news."

"You can do it," Yusei replied. "I want to go outside for a while."

Rally looked at him with worry in his eyes. "Are you okay, Yusei?"

"I'm fine. Don't worry," said Yusei, "I just want to stretch my legs. I'll be back in time for dinner."

Everyone seemed to realize that there was no point in arguing with Yusei when he was in such a mood, so they stood aside and let him pass. Yusei climbed the ladder that led back to the surface, and kept climbing. There were plenty of ruined buildings here, some with nothing left but the ragged edges of their walls. Yusei pulled himself up onto one of these broken ledges and began walking along the edge, moving steadily uphill. He had gone this way many times before, and knew every crack in the concrete and every bit of broken rebar he might stumble or step on. He needed to use his hands near the top where the angle became steeper, but at last he reached a bit of miraculously sound roofing that had survived all this time. If he stood there and looked off in the right direction, he could see the distant lights of the mainland. That was where he turned his gaze now.

"So you made it out, Jack," he said softly. Somehow, he'd always suspected it would be this way - that he would turn around one day and realize that his old friend was gone beyond recall. True, they had not been as close as they'd once been since the old gang had broken up, but at least he'd known that Jack was there if he needed him. Now he wasn't.

And it wasn't just Jack, either. Crow was doing yet another of his prison stints, and Yusei always worried that someday they would decide to stop letting him off with a slap on the wrist and shut him up for good. And Kiryu... well, Kiryu was never coming back, not after what he'd done. Yusei wasn't even sure he was still alive anymore. Sometimes he suspected that he wasn't, but he always pushed the thought away as being too much to think about. Wasn't it bad enough knowing that he'd never see the man who had been like a brother to him ever again, without deciding he was dead, too? Or was it worse to believe that he was idling away his time in prison, and that he would never again see anything that wasn't inside those walls? If they ever caught up to Jack, he'd probably end up in the same place.

_I'm the last one left,_ he thought. His three best friends in the world, and they were all on the other side of that span of water. Jack was actually _free_, if only for the time being. Yusei didn't begrudge him that freedom, but at the same time...

The thought of spending the rest of his life trapped there on that tiny island was suddenly more than he could bear.

"You could have told me how you did it!" he shouted at the empty ocean. His voice echoed off the walls of the vacant, lifeless buildings.

His anger passed as quickly as it had come over him. Slowly, Yusei turned and began walking back towards the ground. His anger may have cooled, but it had not left him unchanged. It was as though something inside him had been forged and tempered. A moment ago, living on Satellite had been his fate - he just hadn't drawn the winning number in life's lottery, which was unfortunate but hardly anything he could change. Now it was all different.

One way or another, no matter what it took, he was going to get off this island.

**To Be Continued...**


	5. They Catch Up on Old Friends

**They Catch Up on Old Friends**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Crow sat on the edge of his bed and kicked his legs, staring at the ceiling and humming tunelessly to himself. After a moment, he got up and began pacing circles around his cell before dropping back onto his bed with a sigh that was more like a groan. Prison wasn't really so bad, all things considered. He always got a light sentence - it was really more the insult of him robbing Security that got people annoyed with him, more than the trifles he stole - and he always got off early for good behavior. They had to let him out. The prison didn't have room enough for everyone, so sooner or later, probably sooner, he would be shunted back to the island to make room for someone who'd done something _really_ bad. He missed his freedom and he missed his kids more, but it wasn't so bad. He got three hot meals a day, no matter what, and he had a roof over head to keep the rain out, and central heating and air conditioning. It was no wonder people in Satellite turned criminal, he sometimes thought - they wanted to get in here where it was safe and warm.

All that was wrong with it was that it was _boring_.

"Hey, Crow."

Crow half-sat so he could see out the door. "Oh, hey, Haseo. How's life?"

"It goes along." Haseo was one of the guards in the minimum-security wing, and as such had seen Crow go in and out of the place often enough that he'd become a sort of a friend - as much as you could be friends with a prison guard, anyway. "What's the matter? You bored?"

"Oh, no, I'm just having a ball. Hey, since I'm such a nice guy, I'll trade places with you."

"Very funny," said Haseo, but he laughed anyway. "I could let you come out and stretch your legs, if you want."

Crow perked up. "You'd do that? Really?"

"Why not?" Haseo replied. "Where are you going to go? This whole place is locked down tighter then Fort Knox, and you know it. Not even you can get out of here. The worst you can do is walk up and down the halls."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Crow agreed, "but that would still be better than being crammed in here all day."

"I can give you about an hour," said Haseo. "After that, my shift will be up, and I'll have to confirm that you are where you're supposed to be. You know how it is."

"Right, right," said Crow. He scrambled for the door. "I'll be back, don't worry."

"Just keep an eye on the clock," Haseo said. "Otherwise, you'll be in big trouble."

He did something complicated with a control panel, and Crow's door slid open. He bounded to freedom, giving the guard a high-five as he went.

"I'll be back before you know it," he promised.

He hurried down the halls, not because he was in any particular hurry to go anywhere, but for the sheer relief of being able to move freely, to run as fast as he liked. He ignored the envious looks and evil glares he got from his fellow inmates. Who cared what they thought?

After he had gone on a while, though, he slowed to consider his situation. Now that he was out, where was he going to go? After all, the hallway wasn't but so long. He shifted gears to a walking pace while he considered his options. After a while, he decided it might be best just to explore for a while. It would give him some exercise, if nothing else.

He moved to the center of the complex and started walking laps around the central area, keeping his eyes on his feet and forcing himself to think of something besides how many corners he'd turned, until he had completely lost track of which wing he was closest to, and then stopped in front of a random hallway and began to walk slowly down it.

Almost at once, he realized that he had not chosen the best possible path. This area seemed to be mostly empty - there were only a small handful of inmates that Crow saw, and they were hardly in the mood to be sociable. They lay huddled in their beds as if trying to block the world out, or sat and stared at nothing. The air was thick with a sense of despair that made Crow's skin crawl. He had just decided to turn around and co somewhere else when...

"Crow!"

Crow stopped moving. That voice - it wasn't much more than a hoarse whisper, but there was something about it that was familiar.

"It is you, isn't it, Crow? Say something. Or just... stay there a minute. Just don't leave..."

Crow slowly turned toward the voice. Near the end of the hall, a thin, pale face, surrounded by lank silver hair, was looking at him through the bars of a cell door. Crow had not seen the zigzag gold mark on that face before, but the rest of it was painfully familiar.

"Kiryu..." he said. He took a few steps closer. "Kiryu, is that you?"

The face relaxed into a tired smile. "I can't believe it. Crow, you idiot, what are you doing here?"

"Enjoying the view," said Crow, taking refuge in sarcasm.

Kiryu laughed. It wasn't a pretty sound - it was as though whatever the laughter came from had broken and no longer worked as it should.

"You haven't changed a bit. Always smart-mouthed," he said. Then he turned serious. "I never thought I'd see you again. I never thought I'd see any of you again."

"Are you... okay?" Crow asked.

Another one of those raspy laughs. "What do you think? Crow, this is death row. I'm just waiting for my time to run out. I don't even know what day..."

"Kiryu..."

Crow had no idea what to say. What _could_ you say, in a place like that?

"You don't know what it's like here, Crow," said Kiryu desperately. "They beat me - torture me. The warden, he's got these electrical things... They can do whatever they want, and nobody will stop them, because who cares? I'm just going to die anyway..."

"What can I do?"

"Get me out of here," said Kiryu. "Please. I'm going crazy. Even dying would be better than this. Even if they kill me, I want to go down fighting, not trapped here like a rat in a cage. And I want to see Yusei again, one last time. It's all I can think about." He gave Crow a desperate look. "I know we... we've had our problems in the past, but you were always my friend. You wouldn't leave me like this, would you?"

"I..." Crow began, and stopped. How could he promise anything like that? He'd never heard of anybody getting out of the Neo Domino jail. It was too well guarded; there were too many alarm systems, too many walls and fences to get past. No one could do it.

_What the hell. There are Security officers and alarms and things at the impoundment lot, too, and I can get in and out of that easy. I'm the best damned thief in Satellite. If I can't do this, I _deserve_ to be locked up in a cell._

"I'll get you outta here," he heard himself promising. "Just give me a little time to think about it. I'll work something out and get back to you."

"You mean it?" Much to Crow's surprise, he saw Kiryu's eyes turn shiny with tears. "Thank you... I can't believe you'd do this for me."

"Hey, we're a team, right?" said Crow, with more bravado than he felt. "You're in good hands. Listen - I need to get back to my cell before the guards start looking for me, but I'll be back, okay?"

Kiryu nodded. "Just don't take too long. I don't know how much time I have."

"Don't worry about a thing. I'll have you out of here before you know it."

"Thank you, Crow. You're a true friend," said Kiryu gratefully. "I'm sorry I ever..."

"Forget it," said Crow, waving a hand dismissively. "It's all water under the bridge. Anyway, I'll see you soon. Soon as I've got a good idea, I'll come back and tell you."

"All right," Kiryu agreed. "I'll try to... to hang in there until then. Good luck, Crow."

_Good luck is right,_ Crow thought. _I'm going to need a whole lot more than just good luck to get out of this._

* * *

The man in the black coat stepped out of the hot, smoky bar and into the quiet of a back alley, leaning gratefully against the cool brick wall. From deep within the recesses of his coat, he produced a cigarette and a silver lighter, and set about the ritual of applying one to the other. He watched the flame dance against the end of the cigarette until it drew out an answering spark, and then closed the lighter with a small sigh of anticipation. It had been a busy night; he needed this.

He wasn't going to get it. No sooner had he raised the cigarette to his lips then something large and heavy lunged from around the corner of the building and tackled him, pinning him to the wall. He gave a grunt, and the things he was holding fell out of his suddenly nerveless hands - the lighter in one direction, the cigarette into a puddle to fizzle and die. The man hardly cared about that, though, because just now there was a pair of narrow, dangerous eyes looking directly into his. Looking _down_ at him, from a good bit upwards. The eyes belonged to a uniformed security officer - an unusually large and heavy one, broad-shouldered and brawny-armed, who was just now resting a good bit more of his weight against the man in black than was comfortable.

"What do you think you're doing? Unhand me!" he demanded. "You can't do this to me!"

"I can so," said the officer. He freed up a hand long enough to produce an ID with the name Ushio Tetsu inscribed on it. "I'm on a special mission, and I have permission straight from the top to do whatever I want as long as I get the job done. Got it?"

"Completely," said the man in black, swallowing hard. Regaining his composure, he said in an almost normal tone, "but I think you have the wrong man. I was just here for a drink, and..."

"Shove it," said Ushio. "I know who you are. James Wiltshire - used to go by Jimmy the Ace before you decided being a bookie for the underground was more profitable than street dueling. That's illegal, yanno. I could lock you up for a long, long time for that."

"You haven't got any proof," the man replied. Which was true - he had always been lucky when it came to avoiding anyone actually being able to pin him down. Security might suspect him, but without proof...

Ushio leaned on him a little harder."Maybe I could arrange a confession. Out there, I represent Security, but back here, it's just you and me, Jimmy. And like I said, I have permission to do whatever I need to do to get the job done. If that means I've gotta encourage you a little..."

"What do you want?" James demanded.

"Information," Ushio replied. He reached under his jacket and produced a blurry photograph. "Have you ever seen a guy who looks like this?"

James glanced at the photo and was only marginally surprised to realize that he had, in fact, seen that face before.

"He was here tonight," he said.

"That's a start," said Ushio. "Got any other information you'd like to volunteer?" He flashed an evil grin, one that seemed to say, _Or would you like me to squash it out of you?_

"He came in with a woman. I never got to see her face," said James. "He said he wanted to duel, and who was I to stop him? He was good - very good. I've never seen his equal..."

"I don't care about that," said Ushio. "Is he still in there now?"

"No, sir. He played a few rounds, collected his winnings, and left. I didn't see where he went. Although... just before he left, I saw him talking to one of the locals."

"Who?"

"A man named Saiga. A former exhibition duelist. I don't know what he does now, other than lurk around complaining about how much the state of dueling has gone downhill since he left."

"You don't know where he hangs out when he's not here?" Ushio persisted.

"Why would I know? It isn't my job to keep up with what every last one of the patrons here do when they're not here."

"You knew his name. You must know something."

"I hear he's good with machines. Computers and things," said James. "More than that, your guess is as good as mine."

The Security officer was quiet a long time, as though seriously considering whether or not James really didn't know anything else, or whether he required a good squashing. Apparently, his conviction of James' ignorance won out.

"Fine. I believe you," he said, letting up on his pressure. James gave a little sigh of relief and tried to work all his shoulder bones back into place. "If it turns out you're not telling the truth, though, I'll pull your lying tongue out through your nose."

"Yes, sir," said James. You had to believe somebody, when they said something in that tone of voice. This pronouncement had come with the confidence of someone who had tried it before.

The officer began to walk away. "Thanks for the info. I'm letting you off the hook _this_ time, but if we ever meet again..."

That sentence didn't need finishing. Squashing was plainly the _least_ James could look forward to.

And then the officer was gone, vanished into the night with the ease of someone who was at home there. For a moment, James felt a twinge of unease about that. He was used to Security officers, and they were relentlessly honest, scrubbed-and-polished, noble souls, for the most part. This one was cut from a different cloth. He spoke and thought and moved like someone who should have been right at home in the underground, in the dark, but he'd gone over to the other side. You had to watch someone like that. There was no telling _what_ he would do, or which side he really belonged to. He might not know, himself. James shook his head. That, he thought, was the sort of thing that led to trouble.

* * *

Saiga woke up late. Not that this was anything unusual; he rarely got up early these days. What was there to get up for? Most of his clients tended to come out late at night, anyway. Last night had been busy, too. Even after his two new houseguests had made themselves comfortable on the floor of his spare room, he had been up late making various arrangements to make sure their stay would hopefully be a quiet one. He'd done a little shopping, too. After all, he'd promised Carly a camera.

When he did finally get up, he wandered drowsily into the kitchen in a pre-coffee haze and found that the room was already occupied. Carly was whirling around like a dervish, apparently trying to do sixteen things at once, an occupation that was hampered greatly by the fact that she was wearing Saiga's old bathrobe. Her old clothes had been removed and washed in the bathroom, and were now hanging on a cord over the sink, where they'd dripped on Saiga while he brushed his teeth. There was nothing else in the house that would fit her, but the robe at least kept her decently covered. Saiga watched with some alarm as she stumbled over the dragging hem and narrowly missed dipping the sleeves into a frying pan.

"Are you sure you don't need some help?" he asked.

"I'm fine... Oops!"

A movement of her hand knocked an egg off the counter, and Saiga scrambled to catch it before it could hit the ground.

"Nice save," she said, grinning sheepishly.

"What do you think you're doing, anyway?" asked Saiga, looking at the spread she'd set out on his stove. He hadn't even realized he owned that many pans. Come to think of it, he hadn't realized he had eggs, either.

"Making breakfast," said Carly. "I feel like it's been years since I've had a hot meal! Jack and I woke up early so I sent him out for food. Your fridge was completely _empty_. What do you _eat_?"

"I don't cook much," he muttered.

"Well, I do," she said. "It'll be done in a minute. There's coffee, if you want it."

"Just leave her alone," said Jack. "She seems to do all right if you don't distract her."

Saiga looked at Jack. The other man was seated at the kitchen table, drinking coffee and poring over a map. He was chewing the end of a pen as he contemplated whatever he'd been writing. Saiga wandered over and found that the city had been divided into small sections of a few blocks each. He had shed the long white coat he'd been wearing when he had arrived, and Saiga noted with brief interest that there was a mark on the back of one of Jack's forearms, like a tattoo in the shape of a stylized pair of wings.

"Making battle plans?" asked Saiga, half-serious.

"This is how Kiryu did it," said Jack. He didn't seem to be paying much attention to Saiga. "Back when we were on Satellite."

"You don't say."

Seeing that Jack wasn't in a mood to be talkative, Saiga settled down to watch Carly cook. Despite the fact that she always seemed on the verge of catastrophe, she never quite got there, and Saiga found himself fascinated. He watched as she narrowly missed dipping her hair into the omelette pan, reached for a spatula without looking closely and barely avoided getting her sleeve in the sausages, joggled a pot of something with her elbow, making it slosh but without actually spilling a drop.

"Are you sure she's not going to burn the house down?" he asked.

"She'll be fine," said Jack. "I've lived with her for a week and she didn't burn anything down. We didn't even have a proper stove."

"City people are spoiled," said Carly. "You can always go to restaurants if you don't feel like cooking. My grandmother grew up on a farm and she learned how to cook real food, and I learned from her. So you're going to eat this and you're going to like it!"

"I'm doomed," said Saiga theatrically, and lay his head down on the table.

A moment later, someone plunked a plate in front of his nose.

"Breakfast," said Carly.

Saiga looked at it. Sitting in front of him appeared to be a rolled omelette, some sausages, a bowl of rice, and a cup of miso soup, with all the proper condiments arrayed next to them. They looked like they might be edible. Actually, they looked surprisingly good, for something that had arisen out of such chaos. He sat up and glanced at Jack, who had already set aside his map and started eating. He didn't appear to be choking. Saiga shrugged and carefully sampled his breakfast.

"See? See?" Carly persisted. "It's good, right?"

Saiga chewed thoughtfully a moment. He swallowed. He looked back at Carly.

"How long did you say you were staying?" he asked hopefully. Carly beamed with pride.

"Told you so," said Jack, without looking up from his map.

Saiga decided that responding to that was not as important as eating breakfast was, so he dug in, while Carly set some more plates in front of Jack and then settled in herself. He had to admit, it was nice to have a hot cooked breakfast ready and waiting for him when he got up, and he wondered fleetingly if this would become a regular thing, and if she was planning on making lunch as well. He couldn't cook anything that didn't come in a microwavable packet, himself, so having someone else to worry about it would be a nice bonus. He might not mind having these two odd characters stick around for a while, if this was how they would behave.

"By the way, Carly - I have something for you," he said.

She looked up from her rice. "For me?"

"I got that video camera you wanted. It's only a used one, but it will do what you need it to do."

Carly gave a squeal of delight that made Jack look up and glare at her.

"Finally!" she said. "It's like I've been missing an arm or something. Is it a good one? What brand is it?"

"I didn't look too closely. It was what I could get," said Saiga. "It's in my room, anyway. I'll show it to you when we're done eating."

"Eee, can't wait! I want to try it out!"

Jack rolled his eyes. "This isn't a toy, Carly. We have serious work to do, and we can't afford to do it wrong."

Carly grinned sheepishly. "I know, but I can still enjoy it, right?"

"So what are our plans for today?" asked Saiga.

"I'm going out," said Jack. "I need to learn the lay of the land, if I'm going to duel here. Carly, you know your assignment, don't you?"

She nodded. They had discussed it in detail the previous night. Her place was to scour the internet for message boards, chatrooms, blogs, every sort of internet community centered on dueling - specifically street dueling, if such things existed, and anything focused on dueling in Neo Domino in particular. Her job was to infiltrate these, a little at a time, under various names, and make herself at home there.

"I can do it," she said. "No problem."

"I've been thinking about that," said Saiga. "Seems to me I could be of help there. I can help cover her tracks - make sure that no one can follow these new names of hers back to the source and figure out that they're all the same person."

"Do that, then," said Jack. "And if you get bored, make a few yourself."

Saiga laughed. "A fine use for my skills, making sockpuppets on message boards. What should I say? Warn them that the next King of Games is on his way?"

Jack scowled at him. "Talk about dueling. Mingle. Pretend you're there to make friends."

"I'm not good at making friends," said Saiga with a grimace.

"I'm not paying you for your good looks," said Jack.

Saiga laughed. "No, you're paying me for a safe room to sleep in and a marker that doesn't give away your friend's location to every Security officer in the world. And a camera, let's not forget that."

"Fine. Do whatever you want."

"I want my camera!" Carly chimed in, and bounced up from her chair. "Where is it? I'll go get it!"

Without waiting for an answer, she went bounding off towards Saiga's room. Saiga sat up with a start and scrambled to his feet.

"I didn't say you could go in there!" he said indignantly.

Jack sighed and folded up his map. "This is what comes of giving her coffee."

They followed Carly into Saiga's room. It was without a doubt a bachelor's apartment, sparse but functional, with only a bed, a desk, a chair, and a small chest of drawers to furnish it. There was little in the way of comfort or color. Yet, there were a few small personal touches. A small framed photograph of Saiga and another man rested on the desk, but it was turned so that it was not easily visible from any point in the room. There were also a few carefully mounted newspaper clippings stuck to the wall with tape or push-pins. Carly, addicted to newsprint as she was, was examining them.

"Saiga, I didn't know you were a duelist," she said.

"I'm not, anymore," said Saiga tersely. "That was a long time ago."

"But... you won so many duels," she said, still admiring the clippings. "Why are you stuck here? Shouldn't you be out there winning tournaments?"

"I'm retired, all right? I've had enough of that life," Saiga snapped. "It's all pointless anyway."

"I don't believe that," said Jack.

Saiga turned on him. "You wouldn't. You're the one with the bright idea that a man from Satellite is going to become a pro duelist. I've been through it all and I know better, but you can follow whatever crazy idea you want."

"No," said Jack. "I don't believe that you think it's pointless. Why would you keep all this if it was?"

"That's none of your business," said Saiga. He took the camera from where it had rested, ignored, on his desk, and handed it over to Carly. "Here. It's yours. Do what you want with it."

He swept out of the room, his previous good mood having vanished entirely. He should have known better, he thought, than to get involved. He ought to throw them both out and let them fend for themselves. At that moment, he couldn't imagine what he'd been thinking to bring them both in there.

_What _was_ I thinking? That I could undo it all? That I was going to start over? Did I think I wanted to bask in their reflected glory?_ He sighed. _What a fool I was._

Well, it would be easy enough to get rid of them. Once they had their plan well in motion, they could leave and do as they pleased.

_What about the girl?_ his conscience whispered. _That mark is going to take constant watching, if it's going to stay safe. If you don't help them, Security will find them._

_Let them get found. I don't care. They should have stayed where they belonged._

_Where do they belong?_

An image rose in his mind unbidden of Jack demolishing his opponents on the dueling stage. Saiga really had never seen another duelist quite like him, not even in the Pro Leagues. Did he really deserve to spend his life in obscurity? And what about Carly - what had she done wrong, that she deserved to stay on that island forever?

_It's not my responsibility,_ he told himself.

To relieve his feelings, he retreated downstairs to his workshop and buried himself in repairing a virus-infected laptop someone had left with him, and pretended he wasn't thinking about anything else but that. After a while, Jack came downstairs, carrying his map, and announced that he was going out and probably wouldn't be back until late. Saiga merely grunted in reply. Jack let the door slam behind him, and after that, it became very quiet. Saiga tried to tell himself he was enjoying the peace.

After about an hour of that, he realized there was only so long a man could lie to himself, and he turned off the computer and marched back upstairs to see what Carly was doing. She was sitting at his best computer, typing rapidly, her fingers a blur. The radio was turned to a pop station, and she was singing along loudly and only occasionally on key. She didn't seem to know most of the words, either, but that apparently didn't bother her. She was so intent on what she was doing that it took several minutes for her to notice she was being watched.

"Oh, hi, Saiga," she said. "Was I bothering you? I can turn it down."

"No, it's fine. Don't worry about it," said Saiga.

"Want to help?" she asked. "I'm just making lists right now. There are so _many_..."

"Show me what you've got so far. I'll start sorting them into priorities," he said.

She handed him a list, and he produced a spare laptop and settled in to work. He had to admit, it was easier and less frustrating than trying to deal with a virus-ridden operating system. It was just enough to keep his brain occupied without being too challenging, and after a while, he found himself lulled into a nearly trance-like state.

"Hey, Saiga?" said Carly after a while.

"What?" he answered distractedly.

"Who was that guy in the pictures with you?"

He glared at her over the edge of his laptop. "What business is that of yours?"

"Hey, I'm a reporter! Well, almost," she said. "Asking questions is what I do. But if you don't want to tell me, I'm sure I could look it up somewhere. It was in the paper, so it must be public record..."

"Oh, for the love of...!" said Saiga. Then he gave a resigned sigh. "All right, fine. You're bound to figure it out sometime anyway. The person in the picture with me is my old friend Yuji. We used to tag team together, back when I was doing exhibition duels - I drove, he rode shotgun."

"Looked to me like you made a good team."

"Yeah... yeah, we were a good team," Saiga agreed. He stared off into space. "Seems like a long time ago. I did the strategy and handled the programming for our bike, and he was the mechanic I can handle a wrench and a screwdriver when I need to, but Yuji... he could build a D-Wheel out of used gum and tin cans."

"He sounds kind of like Jack's friend," Carly commented.

Saiga sat up a bit straighter, roused from his memories. "Who?"

"One of his old friends from the island. Yusei, I think his name was," she replied. "He must have been really good at building things. Jack said he built a D-Wheel out of scrap metal. I think the Security guys confiscated it," she added as an afterthought.

"Wouldn't be surprised," said Saiga with a shrug. "Sounds like they take just about everything they can get from that island."

"I wonder if they'd get along," Carly mused.

"Who? Security?"

"No, Yusei and your friend," said Carly. "Maybe you should introduce them to each other."

"I can't."

"Oh, yeah, I guess you're right. I guess with Yusei still stuck on the island..."

"It's not that," said Saiga. "It's more that... I'm not in touch with Yuji anymore."

"Did you have a fight?"

"No... Not exactly." Saiga sighed heavily. "All right, fine, we had a fight. We had been tag dueling for a long time, but he was getting more interested in his machines, and I was more interested in dueling. My skill level was getting beyond his. Talent agents were starting to recruit me to go solo in the Pro League. I wanted to do it, but I was too much of a coward to tell Yuji that I wanted to break off our partnership, so instead I wound up snapping at him and criticizing him all the time - telling him he wasn't playing well enough, badgering him to practice more, things like that. I guess I thought it would be easier if I could make him want to get rid of me, you know?

"Anyway, we were in the middle of a duel. His monster had just been destroyed, and I was ragging on him for using the same strategy all the time. While I was busy with that, I lost control of the bike, and the sidecar Yuji was riding in broke loose. I managed to dive to safety, but Yuji couldn't get free in time, and he crashed..."

Carly stared at him, wide-eyed. "He's... dead?"

"No, he's not dead," said Saiga tiredly. "He's been maimed for life. He'll never walk normally again. I don't even know if he can walk at all anymore. I haven't been to see him since then. I can't bring myself to look him in the eye, knowing I did that to him."

"You should talk to him," said Carly. "He probably misses you."

"Why should he?" Saiga snapped. "I ruined his life. He probably never wants to speak to me again."

"Well, maybe," she said. She chewed her thumbnail, looking as though she were trying to make up her mind what to say next. "I don't know about being an exhibition duelist, but I do know about being a reporter. And one thing I've learned from that is that everyone has their own side of the story. Even when two people see the exact same thing happen, they might see it completely differently. He might have a different view of what happened."

"I don't see how he can see being hurt like that differently," Saiga muttered.

"Well, you never know," said Carly, looking a bit sheepish. "Anyway... Jack and I are your friends too, now, you know."

"Hm," said Saiga doubtfully. He had his doubts about that. He didn't think Jack was interested in being anyone's friend, maybe not even Carly's.

Carly stretched and rubbed at her eyes. "I've been staring at this thing all day. I'm ready for a break! Hey, what do you want for lunch?"

"I don't know. I usually go for takeout somewhere."

"You're not eating takeout today," said Carly primly. "It's not good for you. I'll check the fridge. There's bound to be something left..."

Still muttering to herself, she wandered off into the kitchen. Saiga thought for a while. At least part of what he was thinking was that it really was nice to have a lady around the house who insisted on doing the cooking. Eventually, he decided he would not throw Jack and Carly out after all.

At least, not just yet.

**To Be Continued...**


	6. Yusei Gets Ice Cream for Breakfast

**Yusei Gets Ice Cream for Breakfast**

**By: SilvorMoon**

There were no good mornings on Satellite. On days when it rained, it came down on the island to form greasy puddles and slip through the cracks in buildings to drip in people's rooms. Even in the summer, everything seemed to turn cold and gray. On days when the sun was out, it glowed red and sullen, turning everything the color of blood, and causing the mist off the ocean to mix with the smoke from the garbage plant to turn into a thick, noxious smog. The only way to escape it was to climb somewhere high above the fog and wait for the sun to rise enough to burn it away, or else to hide underground. Yusei was not in an underground mood that morning, so he sat on a roof and watched the sun rise. The smog may not have been doing anyone's lungs any favors, but if you ignored the ruined buildings and kept your eyes on the sky, the sunrises and sunsets were spectacular.

He almost didn't notice when the helicopter flew over. Helicopters were always flying over Satellite; they were generally full of Security people, checking to make sure that everyone was behaving, or occasionally to pick up or drop off something or someone. Yusei preferred to ignore them. They never meant anything good. However, he did notice when the helicopter did not pass over him, but stopped and hovered, whipping up a wind that stirred his hair and set the trash in the street whirling like leaves in a gale. Sensing trouble, Yusei scrambled down a rusty fire escape and jumped the last five feet to land hard on the ground. He staggered a little, regained his balance, and watched warily as the helicopter landed in the middle of the cracked street. He could see a few other people watching as well, peering from the safety of windows and alleys, ready to melt into the shadows at the slightest sign of danger.

The helicopter's blades slowed to a halt, and a number of serious-looking men in dark uniforms disembarked, forming a circle surrounding it. They stood holding their guns and watching for signs of movement. After a breathless moment, someone else stepped out of the helicopter, and Yusei stared.

It was like looking at an inexpertly doctored photograph. The background was clearly visible, as was the man standing in front of it, but they obviously didn't belong to each other: the squalid streets of Satellite, still half-obscured by thick gray fog, and in the foreground, a handsome man in an immaculate gray suit and pristine white gloves, looking as though he'd never seen a speck of dirt in his life. He scanned the area with a piercing gaze.

"I am looking," he said, "for Fudo Yusei. I was under the impression that he was here." He spoke softly, but his voice carried through the silent street. He was a man people listened to. Yusei backed a little further into his alley. He had more than half a mind just to run for cover and pretend he didn't exist until the danger had passed.

"What do you want with Yusei?" That was Rally, standing up for his friend as always. "He didn't do anything wrong, and he's not here!"

"Peace. I mean him no harm," said the gentleman. "I come as a friend."

"You're no friend of ours!" someone shouted from the sidelines.

The man glared, but whoever had spoken was safely out of sight.

"Nevertheless," he said, "I do not come to cause anyone any trouble. Quite the opposite. Now, if someone would kindly direct me...?"

"I'm here," said Yusei, stepping into view. "What do you want, Director Goodwin?"

He saw the Director's eyes widen slightly, as though in surprise. Then he calmed himself.

"So there you are," he said. "Come closer. Let me get a good look at you... Yes. You look exactly like your father."

Yusei was stunned. "You knew my father?"

Goodwin nodded. "He was a dear friend of mine. That is why I've come looking for you. I couldn't let the only son of my old friend stay in a place like this."

"You waited seventeen years," Yusei pointed out.

"Not by choice," said Goodwin. "After the disaster, I was badly injured, and I did not have the resources to come looking for you. I believed you had perished with your family. It was only recently that I discovered you were alive, and it took more time to locate you. I am relieved to know that you are all right."

Yusei didn't say anything. He didn't quite trust the Director's words. At the same time, he would have been willing to bet that Goodwin was telling the truth about being a friend of Yusei's father. He settled for giving the Director a steady gaze.

"Do you doubt me?" asked Goodwin quietly. "I thought you might. Here - this might convince you."

He reached under his jacket and produced a photograph, and Yusei moved closer for a better look. It was an old picture, and faded - a candid taken with a cheap camera, in what appeared to be a bar. Seated around a table were a number of people. Yusei recognized his father, who really did look just like him, and the pretty woman next to him had to be his mother. Seated along with them were two men. One was a robust-looking fellow, muscular and tanned, with sun-bleached blond hair and ice-blue eyes. The other was plainly a younger version of Director Goodwin. His hair was darker and shorter, and his face less careworn, but there was no mistaking him.

"Who is that?" said Yusei, pointing to the blond man.

Goodwin bowed his head. "That is my brother Rudger, who also died in the disaster."

He sounded so genuinely mournful that Yusei was moved to pity. It was strange to think that even the most powerful man in Neo Domino had lost so much that night.

"In a way," said Goodwin, "you are all that remains of my family. That is why I would rather not see you remain here. I have come to invite you to return to the mainland."

Yusei was robbed of words. Of all the things he'd imagined might happen today, the possibility that the Director of Neo Domino would drop in expressly to invite him over for a visit had never crossed his mind. It was impossible.

"You want me to...?"

"Return home," said the Director calmly. "You were born in Tops, after all. I would be willing to allow you to live in my home until you are ready to strike out on your own."

"Don't do it, Yusei!" Rally shouted. "Don't go with him!"

Yusei looked inquisitively at the Director. "What about my friends? I'm guessing they can't come with me."

"I have not, at present, arranged clearances for more than one person to return with me," said Goodwin, looking regretful. "Perhaps at some later date."

"Yusei, I don't like the sound of this," said Nerve from the sidelines. "Tell him to get lost!"

"I don't want you to leave, Yusei," said Rally tearfully. "Stay here..."

"I like where I am, thank you," said Yusei to the Director.

"You'll miss your friends, of course. I understand," said Goodwin. He leaned closer, lowering his voice. "Jack Atlus. Crow Hogan. Kiryu Kyosuke. Do you miss them, too, Yusei? Would you like to see them again?"

Yusei froze. What was this man getting at? Was he offering this as a genuine kindness? Was this an incentive... or a threat? Yusei knew Crow was already in jail. If Jack were ever caught, he'd be imprisoned as well, if he hadn't been already. And if Kiryu was still alive, it meant he was still on death row, waiting for his sentence to finally be fulfilled. The man Yusei was talking to now controlled all their fates. What might he do if Yusei didn't cooperate? Why did he want Yusei to come with him at all?

"I would like to see them," he said quietly.

"I will arrange it for you, then," said Goodwin. "That is, if you are coming with me."

Yusei took a breath. He looked around at his home, his friends, people who were as much of a family to him as he had ever known. Then he thought of the friends he had on the other side of the water. He wondered what Goodwin would do if he didn't cooperate, and what might happen if he did.

"I can come back later, if I don't like it?" he asked.

"Such a thing might be arranged," said Goodwin.

That wasn't a promise, but it sounded like the best offer he was going to get. He nodded his acquiescence.

"I'll go."

"No, Yusei!" said Rally. "Don't leave us..."

Yusei rested a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"I'll be back. I promise," he said. "Just wait for me a while."

"You're sure?"

"Of course. I was going to let you ride my D-Wheel, wasn't I?"

Rally sniffled. "Okay. As long as you _promise_."

"If you have any items of sentimental value," said Goodwin, "you may bring them with you. All your mundane needs will be provided for, naturally."

"What about my D-Wheel?"

Goodwin raised an eyebrow, but merely said, "Gentlemen, please help Mr. Fudo move his vehicle."

Within moments, Yusei had gathered his meager belongings and watched as four of the uniformed guards rolled his unfinished bike into the back of the helicopter. Feeling ill-at-ease, Yusei followed them aboard, aware of the eyes of his friends watching him. Did they think he was betraying them? He felt a little as though he was, but he promised them silently that he _would_ be back, soon, just as soon as he knew his old teammates were as safe as he could make them. Even so, he couldn't help but feel a sense of foreboding as he heard the sound of the helicopter door close; it had a dismayingly final ring to it.

Yusei felt the lurch of the helicopter taking off, and he peered out the window as the world dropped away beneath him. In a surprisingly short amount of time, he was hovering high above Satellite. From the air, he was surprised at how small the island was. It has always been his whole world, and now he could see clearly that it was really only a tiny patch of land. The horizon stretched out before him, with the city gleaming in the light of the rising sun, and the mainland stretching out forever. The world was so vast and he'd seen so little of it...

They swept over the city, and Yusei looked out at the buildings, all of them whole and glittering, and at the people walking through the broad, clean streets. His eyes, unaccustomed to beauty, were dazzled. So many trees, so many grassy lawns, so many colors! He had been told before that Neo Domino was a paradise compared to the island, but he'd never fully comprehended how right they were. A small and slightly guilty part of him said that yes, it was worth some sacrifice to escape to this place. The other part of him was outraged.

_How can people live like this? Don't they know what's just on the other side of the water? Are we really so easy to ignore that they can forget we're there?_

Then he thought, _Yes, of course we're easy to ignore. The ban isn't just to keep us from getting out; it's to keep them from looking in._

"Why don't you do something about it?" he demanded.

Goodwin turned to look at him blandly. "About what?"

"Satellite! Why don't you fix it? You could make it all look like this, if you wanted to."

"I am doing something. I brought you here," said Goodwin. "I will explain more when we arrive. There are things we must discuss in private, but they will wait until you are settled in."

Yusei subsided, but not without misgivings. The city continued to roll away beneath him, its buildings growing larger and grander the further they went, until Yusei found himself thinking that living here must be like living in a treasure chest, surrounded by glittering jewels on every side. The helicopter was sweeping towards the largest and grandest house of them all. It rested on its own little island, like a mockery of Satellite. Where Yusei's home had dirty streets and run down buildings, this one had well-manicured lawns and flowering gardens. The only building was a vast mansion, one that would have housed everyone he knew with room to spare. It seemed ridiculous and slightly obscene that one man should own so much that he didn't need.

The helicopter touched down gently on a landing pad at the side of the house, and Yusei watched with some bemusement as people began scrambling around. Most of them were the guards the Director had brought with him, scampering to disembark and roll out Yusei's D-Wheel. A few, however, seemed to be there to greet Goodwin and his guest. Yusei took note of a quietly pretty young woman in businesslike dress, and a tiny man in a flamboyant jacket, who greeted them with a theatrical bow.

"Welcome home, Director!" he said. "So pleased to see your mission was successful!"

"Indeed," Goodwin replied.

Yusei saw a look pass between the two of them, something that said, _We'll talk about this later,_ and Yusei frowned slightly. He was almost certain, now, that there was more to this venture than what Director Goodwin was telling him, and he didn't like it. Unfortunately, this didn't seem to be the moment to ask about it. The Director escorted him politely but firmly past his lackey to park him in front of the serious young woman.

"Miss Sagiri, allow me to present to you Fudo Yusei," he said. "Yusei, this is my assistant Mikage. I have business to take care of, but she will assist you in settling in until I am able to return."

Yusei nodded his understanding. The woman bowed and murmured something polite, and Goodwin swept away with the rest of his entourage in his wake. Yusei was left standing alone with the young woman, who was watching him nervously, as if she thought he might have something contagious. He let the silence span out until she finally cleared her throat and began chattering to fill the gulf.

"Would you like to have a look around?" she asked. "There's a room made up for you, if you'd like to see it. Of course, if it doesn't suit you, it would be no problem to relocate you. Did you bring anything with you? They should have sent someone to carry your things..."

"I can manage," he said. "What are they going to do with my D-Wheel?"

"I'll have someone place it in the garage," she said. She produced a small handheld device and began tapping busily on it. Yusei noted with some approval that she was barely even looking at it as she typed; at least he'd been put in the hands of someone marginally competent. "There. It will be safe now. If there's anything else you need, just ask me. The Director told me to make sure you had anything you asked... within reason, of course."

Yusei thought about it. "I'll need tools, eventually."

"Tools?" she repeated, looking blank.

"For the bike," he explained. "It's not done yet."

Mikage stared at him for a moment, then began to laugh. She quickly pressed a hand to her mouth, trying to stifle her giggles.

"I'm sorry, I'm not laughing at you, really," she gasped. She took a breath and got herself under control. "It's only... When the Director said he was bringing someone over from Satellite, and that I should provide him with anything he wanted, I was afraid you would ask for - for a gold-plated yacht, or a private jet, or something entirely inappropriate..."

Yusei almost smiled. "What would I do with a jet? But I promised a friend I would let him ride the D-Wheel when it was finished."

"I understand," said Mikage. She offered him a small smile in return. "You aren't quite what I was expecting."

"Let me guess," he said. "You thought everyone on Satellite was a thief or a murderer."

She blushed, and Yusei concluded that she _had_ been thinking something like that.

"We're not all like that," he said. "Most of us are just trying to get by."

"I see," she said quietly.

She looked so genuinely distressed by her mistake that Yusei felt a bit sorry for her.

"You know, there is something you could get for me," he said.

"Oh?"

"Do you have ice cream?"

She blinked. "Ice cream?"

"I've never tried it. They don't ship it to the island."

"I see. Well, it's a bit early in the morning for ice cream, so..." Mikage began, and then stopped. She smiled at him.

"Let's get ice cream," she said.

She pushed more buttons on her handheld, and then led Yusei down a curving garden path to another part of the property. The sun was well up now, and the gardens were blooming in profusion. The scent of them brought him back in time. Martha had always grown gardens, and even when food was scarce and they relied on the vegetables she grew to keep everyone fed, she'd always set aside a little patch of ground for flowers. "They feed your soul," she'd said to him, and he hadn't understood what she meant. It was only later that he'd begun to understand what it was to have something that existed for no other reason to be beautiful. He wondered what Martha would think of this place. It made him smile, imagining giving her and her adopted children the run of these gardens.

Mikage led him up to a small gazebo tucked amid a cluster of flowering shrubs. By the time they arrived, there was already a servant in an elegant black jacket standing there, in the process of placing a covered tray on a small table. He drew out a chair for Mikage, and then gestured for Yusei to seat himself as well. Once they were settled, he raised the lid of the tray, revealing two crystal bowls filled with elaborate ice cream sundaes: banana splits with three flavors of ice cream, strawberries, pineapple, chocolate sauce, crushed chocolate cookies, nuts, copious amounts of whipped cream, multicolored sprinkles, and a cherry on top, with a few more cookies tucked around the edges to hold everything in. Yusei stared - first at the ice cream, and then at Mikage. She gave him an innocent smile.

"The Director called me out of bed to come show you around. I haven't had breakfast yet," she said. "This has milk and fruit in it. It's nearly healthy."

Yusei smiled. Mikage, he decided, was all right. Whatever was going on around here, he was willing to bet she had no more idea of it than he did. It was nice to think that there was someone here that he could, if not exactly trust, at least not have to be suspicious of all the time.

After a few more moments of contemplation, he came to the further realization that ice cream was good.

They sat quietly for a while, giving their "breakfast" the attention it was due. Every so often, Mikage would make a comment or ask him a question, but for the most part, she seemed to be willing to let Yusei be silent if he wanted to be. That was good. He needed some time to adapt to this new situation. It was starting to sink in that Goodwin expected him to remain here for a long time... perhaps indefinitely. Why? He had a feeling that whatever the Director said, it didn't have anything to do with ties to old friends. It could have something to do with Jack and the others, but it was hard to imagine that Yusei could do anything that Security couldn't accomplish alone. If Goodwin meant to use him as some kind of hostage to lure Jack back into captivity, he had a long wait ahead of him. Yusei knew Jack well enough to know that if Yusei were in trouble, Jack would probably just wait for Yusei to settle the problem himself. No, Jack had been dreaming all his life of a chance like this, and he wasn't going to give it up now, for Yusei or anyone else. So what else was there?

He was still mulling over this question, stirring a puddle of melted ice cream with the tip of his spoon, when the morning stillness was broken by the sound of someone jogging up the walk. Yusei looked up to see a uniformed Security officer heading towards them, carrying a file folder. He wasn't one Yusei knew by name, but he'd seen him around before - one of the officers who usually patrolled around Satellite looking for troublemakers. The officer wasn't even looking at Yusei, though.

"Mikage, I finally found you," he said. "What are you doing way out here?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Ushio. I was just showing Yusei around..."

Ushio looked at Yusei and narrowed his eyes, shifting into a defensive stance. Yusei met his gaze calmly. He'd seen looks like that before, though never leveled at him. It said clearly, _Back off - I saw her first!_ Yusei gave a slight shrug and an even slighter shake of his head: _She's all yours - I'm not interested._ Ushio gave a grunt of acknowledgment, but he edged a little closer to Mikage anyway, just to make his point.

Mikage, predictably, ignored the whole exchange; it was doubtful she realized any communication had taken place.

"Yusei, this is Officer Ushio Tetsu - he's helping me with an assignment," she said, causing the aforementioned officer to expand with pride. "Ushio, this is Fudo Yusei, the Director's new ward. He's going to be staying here for a while, so the Director asked me to show him around."

"Huh. I hadn't heard anything about a ward," said Ushio. "What is he, like a nephew or something?"

"He's the son of the Director's old friend," Mikage explained.

"Hmm," said Ushio. He stared very hard at Yusei. "I feel like I might seen you before somewhere..."

"I believe his father was the leader of the team that designed the Momentum generator," Mikage informed him. "They look a great deal alike. Perhaps you've seen pictures?"

"Oh," said Ushio. "Yeah, I guess that could be it..."

"Didn't you have something you wanted to talk to Mikage about?" Yusei prompted. The last thing he needed was for Ushio to figure out he came from Satellite.

"Yes, what did you want to tell me?" asked Mikage.

Ushio, as Yusei had hoped, apparently found Mikage much more interesting than an ordinary teenaged boy.

"Ah, right," he said. "I wanted to tell you I got a lead on that case. Maybe we could go somewhere to talk about it in private...?"

"Very well," she said, getting to her feet. "I'm sorry, Yusei, but duty calls. Your room is the cobalt suite - anyone will be able to tell you how to get there. You'll be all right on your own, won't you?"

"I'll be fine," he assured her.

"All right, then. I'm sure I'll see you later. It was nice meeting you, Yusei," said Mikage.

Yusei watched her wander off in the company of the Security officer. He sat a moment, eyeing the empty ice cream dishes and wondering if he was expected to do something about them. Martha had always drilled it into him that he should put his dishes in the sink when he was done with them, and old habits died hard. On the other hand, he had no idea where to even look for a sink, and he supposed that the man in the black jacket would come to fetch them eventually. This place was going to take some getting used to, he mused as he drifted down the cobblestone walk. Most of his old habits and instincts weren't going to help him here. He sighed. He'd been here barely an hour, and already he was homesick.

_I need something productive to do,_ he decided.

Work would make him feel better. He wandered around outside until he ran into someone who looked like they worked there, and asked them where he might find the garage. Following their instructions, he made his way to the side of the manor - quite a long walk - and found himself facing a five-car garage. He wouldn't have immediately taken it to be a garage, so smoothly did its exterior blend with the design of the mansion, but the roll-away garage doors made him certain he had found the right place. He tried one of these doors and found that it opened easily, so he let himself inside.

One look inside the garage convinced him that he had been mistaken. It was not, in fact, a five-car garage. It could have held a lot more than that, for it extended backwards far enough to make room for at least ten cars in all. There weren't that many vehicles in there yet. There was, however, an unfinished D-Wheel parked where Yusei was obviously meant to see it. He walked over to run his hand over it affectionately. In this strange place, the bike felt like an old friend.

When he'd had his fill of admiring his mechanical creation, he noticed a red toolbox sitting nearby. It was clearly a serious toolbox - it was large enough that Yusei would have had difficulty picking it up, and had a number of drawers and sections that swung open. The inside held all the tools an industrious young man could want, each one pristine and gleaming. Not one of them was scratched, chipped, bent, rusty, or held together with duct tape. He marveled at them for a moment, then smiled.

"Thank you, Mikage," he said.

Feeling a little more cheerful, he knelt down on the floor and began familiarizing himself with the contents of the toolbox. Later, there would be time to learn more about this situation. For now, though, he had a promise to keep to Rally... and, he had to admit, he was looking forward to trying out his new toys.

* * *

"So, what did you find out?" asked Mikage. She and Ushio were walking through the halls of the Director's manor. Ushio was impressed. He had never before been allowed in there. His own home was a four-room apartment that was usually infested with old pizza boxes and dirty socks, no matter how many times he resolved to clean the place out. He found he envied Mikage a bit, getting to work in a place like this. She led him into what appeared to be some sort of small parlor and gestured that he should take a seat on something that looked entirely too spindly for his taste. It was probably antique, and he was afraid it would be taken out of his paycheck if he broke it. He sat down anyway, carefully, and watched with some envy as Mikage took a seat on a much more comfortable-looking sofa. He wished he could sit next to her.

With an effort of will, he got his mind back on business.

"I did some kicking around on Night Street," he said. "Any duelist down on his luck ends up there eventually."

"The underground," said Mikage, nodding seriously.

The underground duels were always a problem. They couldn't be shut down, not completely. Security did a sweep once every few months, but there were always more underground duelists to take the place of those who were caught. It was a task a bit like taking out the garbage - not just because it was dirty and unpleasant, but because there was really no point in doing it every time there was one little scrap of refuse that needed cleaning out; you had to wait until things had piled up a bit, and then once you'd done it, you could be sure you'd be doing it again soon. The underground, however, was occasionally a good source of information, Ushio had found, especially in cases like this.

"Right," he said. "I applied a little pressure to the guys who've been running the circuit. They say Jack Atlus and the girl have been there. They won't be able to hang around there anymore, though. Nobody will take him when they know Security is watching him."

"Well done," said Mikage, making him glow with pride. "That leaves them without any resources to fall back on."

"That's what I figured," Ushio replied. "Anyway, I asked around, and it sounds like they've gone off with a guy called Saiga. Here's what I dug up on him."

He passed the folder he'd been carrying to Mikage, who leafed through it with a thoughtful expression.

"A computer expert," she said. "That would explain why we can't get a lock on the girl's mark. He must be the one blocking the signal."

"Must be," said Ushio. "He must have a lotta friends, too, because I can't track the guy down. Everybody's heard of him, but nobody's talking."

"You can take your time," Mikage assured him. "They can't legally get jobs without proper identification. With the underground closed to them, they can't get money that way. Without money, they won't be able to go very far. We can track them down at our leisure."

"Good thinking," said Ushio. He might have said more, but he was blindsided by an oncoming yawn. He tried to cover it with his hand. "Sorry, Mikage. I'm kinda tired. It's been a busy night."

"Goodness, have you been out looking for them all night?" asked Mikage.

"Well, yeah," he admitted.

"I won't have that," she said, laying a hand on his arm. "I want you to go home right this minute and get some rest, is that understood? I'll look into getting more information on this Saiga character and get a search warrant written up. You can start again later."

If Ushio's thoughts at the moment could be translated into words, they would have been something like, "ohgodohgodohgodshe'stouchingmewhatdoido?" He tried to keep it from showing on his face.

"Ah... sure, Mikage, whatever you say."

She smiled at him. "Good. And don't worry about a thing. I have absolute faith that we'll have it wrapped up in no time."

"You bet," he told her. "So, um... how do I get out of here, anyway?"

She laughed. "It's confusing, isn't it? It took me ages to find my way around. Here, I'll show you the way out."

She stood and tugged on his sleeve, and he obediently got to his feet and followed her out.

"Do you live here?" he asked her.

"Kind of," she admitted. "This all belongs to the Director, but I have a suite here so I'll always be around when he needs me for something. I couldn't ask for better surroundings. Only..."

"What?"

"I'd really rather be working out in the field, to tell the truth," she admitted, as if that were a shameful secret.

"You don't like working here?" Ushio asked, surprised. True, he would be a little intimidated by these luxurious surroundings, but it seemed like she should feel at home in them.

"It's not that, exactly," Mikage said. "It's just that I'd rather be _doing_ something. I feel so useless, just doing secretarial work all the time." More quietly, she continued, "I've always wanted to work for Security. I want to help people, especially the ones who can't help themselves. I thought I could really make a difference, but instead, I'm stuck filling out paperwork. This is my first real case," she confessed.

"Well, you could have fooled me!" said Ushio. "Don't worry about a thing, Mikage. I think you're doing a great job."

She smiled at him, making him suddenly lose track of his feet and stumble on the thick carpeting.

"Thank you," she said. "That means a lot to me. It really does! I mean, you've been doing this a lot longer then I have, so you would know if I was doing something wrong..."

"You're doing just fine," Ushio assured her. "I... I'm honored you picked me to work with you."

"Now you're just trying to get on my good side," she said, but she smiled anyway.

"I meant it," he said, and he really did. This wasn't just a routine assignment. Mikage was entrusting him with her dream - if this thing went wrong, he had no doubt that she'd go back to filing papers until the end of time. Security wasn't very forgiving of mistakes. He _had_ to get this right, for her sake.

_She really is a kind person..._

"That's sweet of you," she said. "I'll tell you what - let's meet here again later tonight. If I haven't found a lead on this Saiga person by then, we'll go back to Night Street together and see if we can't turn up some more information by talking to people. I'm _good_ at talking to people."

"You... want to go to Night Street?" asked Ushio. He was having a hard time imagining delicate little Mikage striking up a conversation with the shady characters and derelicts.

"Of course," she said. "I'll just need a little time to prepare. Trust me. I know what I'm doing."

"If you say so, I believe it," he replied. Privately, he was a little uncertain, but he would give her the benefit of the doubt. Besides, it might look good if he got to rescue her from somebody, which was always a possibility.

"Right," she said. "So we're both going to need to rest up so we'll be fresh for tonight." She stopped walking in front of a door. Ushio was surprised to realize they were at the exit already. He hadn't been paying the least bit of attention to his surroundings. "So, I guess I'll see you this evening?"

"I guess so," he agreed. "Ten o'clock? Things will be heating up down there by then."

"You'd know best," she said.

"Okay, then." He shuffled awkwardly. "Guess I'll, um. Be going."

"Go get some rest," she said. "Goodbye, Ushio."

She turned and walked away. He watched her leave, feeling abandoned.

"Bye," he said.

He sighed. _Come on, pull yourself together. You're too old to be going to mush over a woman. Even if she is really pretty. And nice. And smart. And she's not afraid of Night Street..._

All right, so maybe she _was_ worth going to mush over. At least he'd be seeing her again tonight. For now, though, he had an order: to go home and get some sleep.

If he was lucky, at least he'd get to dream...

* * *

Maybe it was morning. For all Kiryu knew, it could be the middle of the night. Time had long ago ceased to have any real meaning for him. There were no windows he could use to judge the passage of the sun, and no clocks anywhere. Every meal was more or less like every other one - why waste good food on someone who was just going to die soon anyway? Likewise, night was whenever he happened to sleep, which was much of the time. No one was going to let him out of his cell for any reason other than to get a bit of entertainment out of him. What reason was there to be awake?

But at the moment, Kiryu was awake, and as far as he was concerned, it was morning. For the first time in what had surely been years, he had something to look forward that wasn't a trip to the injection chamber. Crow was here, and soon, he would be coming back. He was going to take Kiryu to freedom. Kiryu clung to that thought like a life preserver. If only he could get out of this prison, even for a little while, even if it was only to die. At least he would do it out in the fresh air, fighting like a warrior instead of being helplessly led to the slaughter. That was all he really hoped for - a chance to die a free man, and maybe take a few of these Security bastards with him. And find Yusei, of course.

_Yusei... How long has it been?_

Things had been so good, once. From where Kiryu was now, Satellite seemed like a paradise. There had been no laws there, really, save for survival of the fittest. Oh, there were the Security officers, but they could only punish you if they could catch you. It was a fair fight out there. And he'd had friends there - Yusei with his cool head, Jack with his indomitable spirit, Crow with his bravado. They had made a good team.

_How could it have gone wrong?_

He still couldn't understand why they had abandoned him. He had thought they'd understood - that they believed the same thing he did. They had always gone along with him when he'd planned to drive out all the other gangs in Satellite and make it a better place for everyone. It made no sense that they would stop cooperating with him just when they'd finally gotten matters well in hand, but it hadn't been long before Crow had turned disobedient, and when Kiryu had disciplined him, Jack had taken offense, and soon both of them had walked away. But not Yusei. He had remained loyal, and Kiryu had trusted him. Even after Yusei had finally left him, he had at least believed that Yusei at least wouldn't try to stop him.

He had never once believed that it would be Yusei who would betray him to the enemy.

_You knew they would do this to me if they caught me. You heard the stories from the ones who came back. I was faithful to you - I loved you like a brother. I gave you my trust, and this is what you gave me._

But everything would be all right now. Crow was going to help him. Kiryu was willing to forgive him for his earlier disobedience - everything that had gone before was eclipsed by Yusei's treachery. But soon, all would be remedied...

He began to laugh - a high-pitched, clattery, mechanical giggle that went on far too long.

"I'm coming for you, Yusei," he said. "Wait for me. I'll find you soon. We'll be together again, then. Won't that be _fun_, Yusei?"

**To Be Continued...**


	7. They Go WitchHunting

**They Go Witch-Hunting**

**By: SilvorMoon**

"I'm bored!"

Ruka looked up from her crayons to give her brother a look of faint puzzlement.

"Why don't you do something?" she suggested reasonably.

Rua rolled over to give his sister a glare. He had been sprawled on his bed in an attitude that suggested he was only moments away from perishing of sheer dejection, and he resented having his act disrupted.

"If I knew something to do," he said, "I wouldn't be bored!"

"Then why don't you keep yourself busy looking for something to do?" Ruka replied.

Rua glared at her. "You act too much like a grownup! You're going to turn into an old lady."

"At least I won't be bored," she said.

"Aw, you're no fun at all," Rua complained.

He might have said more at that point - he had quite a speech worked out, in fact - but at that moment, his cell phone began to ring. Glad of the distraction, he bounded off to answer it.

"Hello?" he said breathlessly.

"Hey, Rua!" answered the voice of his best friend Tenpei. "You'll never believe what I just heard!"

"Is it something good?" asked Rua.

"It's unbelievable!" said Tenpei. "I've got an uncle who works for Security, and he says that some people snuck off the island!"

"Huh?" said Rua. "But... aren't there, like, Security guys and stuff everywhere?"

"That's what happened!" said Tenpei. "They knocked my uncle over the head and stole his badge and uniform and one of them pretended to be a Security officer and drove himself and his partner away in a van. And they're still on the run!" he finished triumphantly. He'd rattled off the whole description in one breath, which made it rather hard to follow, but Rua had gotten the gist of it.

"Wow! Are they dangerous?" asked Rua. He wasn't particularly worried about the idea. With Security officers on practically every street corner, he found it hard to be frightened of two escapees, no matter how cunning they might be.

"Well, they did hit my uncle over the head," said Tenpei.

"Oh, yeah, that's right."

"Anyway, be careful, okay?" asked Tenpei. "These guys might be anywhere now! There's no telling what they'll do next!"

"I'll be careful," Rua promised, already making plans.

He hung up the phone and turned back to his sister, who was still contentedly coloring.

"Who was that?" she asked.

"Tenpei," said Rua. "Guess what! A couple of crazy people escaped from Satellite, and they're running loose in the city right now!"

Ruka regarded him with distrust.

"You have the wildest imagination," she said, and went back to her crayons. "If people really escaped, it would be on the news."

Rua started to say that he wasn't imagining things, and then changed his mind. He could have probably talked his sister into believing him - she was generally pretty reasonable about most things, once you made it clear you were serious about them - but it had occurred to him that this adventure might be more fun if she stayed home. Rua loved Ruka more than anything in the world, but she tended to get tired easily and have trouble keeping up with him. It might be better, he decided, if he left alone and told her all about it when he got back.

"I'm going exploring," he said.

That got her full attention at last. "Where are you going?"

"Oh, you know. Around," he said. "You were the one who said I should do something so I wouldn't be bored, right?"

"I guess so," she said, looking unconvinced. "Do you want me to come too?"

"No, it's okay," he answered quickly. "I'll be fine, really! If I get lost, I'll just call a taxi and come back home."

"Well, I guess that's all right," she said, "but don't be gone too long, okay? I get worried."

"It'll be fine," he assured her. "I'll be home in time for dinner."

Having successfully convinced his sister to let him leave, Rua packed a bag with some survival gear - his Duel Disk (you never knew when you might want it), some snacks, a flashlight, a jump rope (the only thing he could find that might be suitable for tying up criminals), his cell phone, and a secret decoder ring he'd gotten out of a cereal box. He had never quite figured out what the secret decoder ring was good for, but he knew it was supposed to be for spies, and included it in his criminal-catching kit on general principle.

_Now, if I were from Satellite, where would I go?_ Rua asked himself, as he left his house. It wasn't a situation he'd ever gave much thought to before, so he let himself wander aimlessly while he considered it. Nobody ever said much about Satellite, other than that it was dirty and run down and full of criminals. If he were a criminal, he decided, he would probably go somewhere there were lots of people to steal from. The mall, maybe? There would definitely be a lot of people with money there. That might be dangerous, though - sooner or later someone would notice them, and wouldn't someone from Satellite be wearing the wrong kind of clothes? Rua didn't pay much attention to the latest trends, but he was pretty sure there weren't any designer outlets on Satellite. They probably made clothes out of old bedsheets and things.

Someplace to hide, maybe? That sounded better. They could find a secret hideout somewhere safe and start making plans for... what were they going to do, anyway? Maybe they didn't know either. That was probably why no one had found them yet - because they were hiding. Everyone would be really impressed if he found them. Where would they hide? Maybe someplace that felt like home...

The Daimon district was one of the rougher parts of town, one of the areas that had survived the disaster more or less intact, and had therefore never been rebuilt, but instead simply grew older and shabbier with the passage of seventeen years. Rua thought it must be enough like Satellite that a couple of refugees might feel at home there. He picked his way through the streets, keeping his eyes peeled for any signs that someone might be hiding nearby. So far, he wasn't finding much, but the novelty of exploring a new location was enough to keep him occupied for a while.

After he had gone several blocks, he became aware of a commotion somewhere in the distance. His first thought was, _Aha, it's them!_ followed closely by, _Darn it, someone else got to them first._ But even in his disappointment, he couldn't fight back curiosity. Before he'd even thought about it, he'd set out to see what all the racket was about.

At the intersection of two streets, a someone was having a duel. Rua couldn't see exactly what was going on, because there was a great number of people in the way. All he could see was the tops of the monster's heads as they battled. After making a few attempts to squeeze through the crowd, he gave up and scampered around the edge of it. On one side of the street, one of the old buildings had been torn down at last, and something new was being built in its place. There were a lot of beams and boards stacked in heaps or joined into frames like an oversized jungle gym, and Rua had never met a jungle gym he didn't like. He found a conveniently placed beam and swarmed it, climbing until he found a crossbeam he could sit on and look out over the crowd. It wasn't a very comfortable perch, but he could sit there with his legs dangling and watch what was going on.

It was, in fact, quite a sight. In the middle of the street was a burly man in tattered jeans, his muscles straining against a stained white shirt, which was now gray with sweat. Even from a distance, Rua could see that the man was breathing heavily, and there was a streak of what looked like blood across his forehead. That gave Rua a momentary pause; people didn't ordinarily bleed during duels. On the other side of the street was a figure in a long dark cloak, with a hood pulled up to hide their appearance. The person's back was turned towards him, so Rua couldn't see their face, or even guess if they were male or female. Whoever they were, they didn't seem anywhere as distressed as the man they were dueling. They stood perfectly still, watching as though the man's discomfort meant nothing at all. Something about the shrouded duelist's nonchalance gave Rua a slight chill.

_That's not the way you duel,_ he thought with disapproval. Where he came from, dueling was undertaken for the pure fun of it. Fighting with such grim detachment seemed strange to him. Even someone dueling for money ought to act as though they had some interest in the proceedings. He wondered what was going on.

He didn't have long to think about it, though. Even while he was wondering, the robed duelist summoned some sort of red and black dragon, covered in fluttering petals. A warm wind rushed past, and Rua was surprised to catch a powerful scent of roses. There were no roses here...

Then the dragon attacked. Rua wasn't sure what happened then, only that there was a huge burst of light and a blast of sound. The wall across the street crumbled into dust and chunks of brick, and the crashing of masonry was almost drowned out by the screams of the crowd as they fled in all directions. Rua watched as a piece of a wall sailed through the air, hit the pavement, bounced a few feet, and careened directly into the base of one of the posts he was resting on. The whole structure gave an ominous creak.

"Uh-oh," he said.

The post collapsed. The beam Rua was resting on, deprived of its support, began to tilt, and Rua grabbed onto it with both hands to avoid being dumped onto the ground. It didn't work. The slippery metal beam didn't offer any handholds, and he was slowly but inexorably sliding towards the unsupported end. He looked down at the ground. It hadn't seemed so far away when he was climbing up, but now that he was on his way back down...

Rua clung as tightly as he could, shut his eyes, and silently promised to eat his vegetables and to go to bed on time for the rest of his life if only something would get him out of this in one piece.

He slipped off the end. He gave a yelp as he felt himself dropping - but he only fell a short distance before someone caught him and lowered him safely to the ground. He opened his eyes.

There was a woman standing over him, watching him with an expression of concern.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

Rua stared.

"Ah," he said.

At eleven years old, Rua wasn't old enough to take an interest in girls. He'd shared a room with his sister long enough to know there were differences between the two, but he didn't see why they were anything to get excited about. This woman, though, gave him an inkling. She was tall and stately, with the kind of cool, aloof expression that wouldn't have looked out of place on a statue of some ancient goddess. Even in all the dust, her dark hair was glossy as satin, and her eyes were the color of arctic ice.

"I said, are you all right?" she repeated.

Rua nodded. "I... I think so."

"Then we should leave. It's not safe here," she said.

She took his hand and began leading him away. For such a slender woman, she was surprisingly strong. She led him towards the more upscale parts of town, far away from the strange cloaked duelist. Rua's new friend walked quickly, and all his considerable energy was required to keep up with her. He was somewhat out of breath by the time she finally stopped walking.

"We should be safe enough here," she said. "I don't think she'll follow us, but... better safe than sorry. Are you certain you're all right? You weren't bruised when you fell?"

"I'm fine," he assured her. "What just happened? And who are you? What were you doing out there?"

The woman smiled. "So many questions. Well, let me see if I can answer some of them. Do you like cake?"

"Yeah!" said Rua, whose curiosity about the situation was not nearly enough to outweigh his interest in desserts.

"Then let's have something to eat while we talk," she said. "Then I'll tell you what I know."

There was a small coffee shop nearby that sold desserts. The dark woman ordered a glass of cold tea for herself, and allowed Rua to pick out a slice of cake and a big chocolate milkshake. They went and sat at a little table outside, shaded by a big yellow umbrella. Rua, fully recovered from his ordeal, slurped his milkshake and regarded his savior with curiosity.

"This is good," he said. "How come you only got tea?"

She gave him an amused look. "A lady has to watch her figure. But I'm glad you're enjoying yourself. I was afraid when I saw you falling - I thought you might have been hurt."

"I'm fine," he said. He played with his cake. He was still a little bit in awe of this beautiful woman, despite how kind she was being to him.

"I'm glad to hear it," she said. "By the way, you haven't told me your name yet."

He had to think about it for a moment. "Rua."

"That's a good name. My name is Misty Lola."

Rua looked up, surprised. "I've heard of you! You're like an actress or something, right?"

"Or something," she agreed, looking amused. "I'm a model, actually."

"Oh!" He felt himself blushing, ashamed of his mistake.

"You were almost right," she said kindly. "I've been in a few commercials, so in a way, I am an actress."

"Oh," he said again. It was strange - most of the time, he could chatter a mile a minute, about anything, to anyone. It was unusual for him to feel so tongue-tied around anyone, but this woman seemed to be doing something to his brain. He felt hypnotized, like a bird in front of a snake... He shook himself. What was he thinking? This kind woman was nothing at all like a snake.

She laughed softly. "Don't be so shy. I promise I don't bite. We came here to talk, remember?"

Rua nodded. Then, realizing he was supposed to talk, he said, "What were you doing in that place?"

"I was looking for the witch," said Misty factually. "I knew she would be there. Wasn't that what you were there for?"

Rua shook his head. "What witch? I never heard of a witch."

"That was who was dueling earlier."

"The one who blew up the building?" asked Rua, intrigued. Anyone who could get away with blowing up buildings in real life was a subject of interest, if not admiration.

"Yes, that was her," said Misty. "I've been watching her for some time, now. She wanders the city, challenging people to duels for her own cruel amusement. She is a dangerous woman - not someone children should be following around."

"Why are _you_ following her around?" asked Rua.

"Because I want to learn more about her," said Misty. "I want to find some way of stopping her before she hurts any more people, like she did today."

"Wow," said Rua, suitably impressed. "Can I help?"

"I wouldn't want to get you into any trouble," said Misty. "It might be dangerous."

"Please?" he begged.

She smiled a little. "I don't know. I'd have to think about it. Hm..." She looked thoughtful for a moment, then beckoned for him to come stand next to her. "Come here a moment. Let me have a look at your face."

Rua was puzzled by this odd request, but after she had been kind enough to save him from falling and then buy him cake, he felt he could hardly turn it down. He got up and walked closer to her, so that he could look her in the eye. She touched a gentle hand to his chin, brushing her cool fingers over his cheek and pushing back his bangs. He stood very still and tried not to squirm.

"You have a kind face," she said at last, withdrawing her hand. "And a brave soul. And... you have a sister, don't you?"

"H... how did you know that?" asked Rua.

"I can read people's futures by studying their faces," she said. "Not every detail, but a few things."

"Cool!" said Rua. "Can you tell who's going to win the next big Duel Monsters tournament?"

She laughed again. "Bring me all the contestants to look at, and I'm sure I could. But I think it's more fun not knowing, don't you?"

"Yeah, maybe," Rua admitted. "But last time there was a tournament, I bet my allowance on this one guy and he didn't even make it into the semifinals. That wasn't fun at all."

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, raising a hand to cover a smile. "Maybe you'll have better luck next time?"

"That's why you should tell me who's going to win!"

"We'll see," said Misty. "Does that mean you want to come visit with me again some time?"

"Well... sure. I mean, if that's okay with you..."

"I wouldn't mind," she replied. She stared off into space, her expression suddenly sad. "Actually, I've been a bit lonely, as of late. I used to have a little brother about your age, but... he died, a few months ago. I miss him terribly."

Rua stared. "Whoa... I mean, wow, I'm really sorry."

"It's not something for you to be sorry about," she said. "But if you would come visit me... it would make me happy."

"I'll visit!" he said. "I'll visit every day! Can I bring Ruka, too?"

"By all means. The more the merrier," she said. She fished in her purse and produced a card. "This is the address of my apartment. Come visit any time."

"Wow, thanks!" he said, accepting the card reverently. This day wasn't turning out to be such a big loss, after all. "My friends are never going to believe this!"

"Maybe you can introduce me to them too, sometime," said Misty, "but I think we had better start small and let me meet people one at a time."

Rua nodded. "Ruka first. You'll like her."

"I'm sure I will," said Misty.

Just then, her phone began to ring. She answered it and listened a moment.

"Yes... yes, I see. Of course. I'll be right there. Goodbye." She turned off the phone and looked at Rua. "I'm sorry. It looks like I have to go to work. But I should definitely be home tomorrow. Will I see you then?"

"You can count on it!" said Rua.

"I'll look forward to it," Misty replied. "Goodbye, Rua. I'll see you soon."

She got up and walked away, leaving nothing but the scent of her perfume behind. Rua watched her go. When she had disappeared out of sight, he looked back at his cake, but somehow it wasn't as interesting when there wasn't any company to share it with. With a sigh, he gulped down the last of his drink and picked up the piece of cake to sustain him on the long journey home.

When he arrived home, the first thing he did was go looking for Ruka. She had apparently gotten tired of coloring and was now busy building things with plastic blocks. Unlike Rua, who generally only put them together for the fun of knocking them over again, she had a flair for architecture. She had created a spectacular tower, nearly as tall as she was, and festooned it with balconies, turrets, and arches. She was busy adding a few finishing touches when Rua walked in.

"Where have you been?" she asked. "You were gone a long time."

"There was a duel and then I got cake," he said. " "And you'll never guess what else! I met a lady from TV!"

"Really?" Ruka asked. "Someone famous?"

"Yeah, and she gave me her card and everything." Rua proffered the card so his sister could see it. She took it and studied it with interest.

"Misty Lola? Wow, she's really famous," said Ruka. "I wish I could have met her. Why didn't you come get me?"

"I was going to," said Rua, "but she had to leave. She gave me that card and said we can come visit her another time. Maybe there'll even be more cake!"

"Wow," said Ruka, looking impressed. "She must be really nice."

"She was," Rua replied. "And I think she's lonely."

"Hm... It seems kind of weird, though. Why would a famous person like her just invite a stranger into her home?"

Rua shook his head, mildly annoyed by his sister's suspicions. "Like I said, she's lonely. And she says she can see the future! I bet it's like, fate or something. Anyway, you can meet her yourself and ask her, if you want."

"Well, maybe," said Ruka. "Anyway, are you ready for dinner now?"

"Yeah! I'm hungry! Let's go somewhere and get food!"

"But you said you had cake," Ruka pointed out.

"Well, yeah," said Rua, "but then I had to walk a long way to get home again!"

"Well, if you say so," said Ruka. "What should we eat?"

"I want a burger!"

"That's what you always want!"

Rua nodded. "That's right! I read in a magazine that burgers are Mutou Yugi's favorite, so I'm going to eat them too, so I can be a great duelist like him!"

"I don't think it works that way," said Ruka. She thought about it for a moment. "Burgers are still good, though. We can got to the Red Sparrow and get pineapple burgers!"

"Ew, that's gross! Who'd put pineapple on burgers?" asked Rua.

"Me," said Rua primly. "And if I get there before you do, I'll order one for you too."

"Oh no you don't!" said Rua.

"If you don't stop me, I will!"

She took off at a run. Rua laughed as he chased after her; his sister had never been able to outrun him. He had only gone a few paces, though, before he stopped and checked his pocket. There was no way he was going to run off until he was sure that Misty's card was still safely with him. He wouldn't betray her trust by losing it - but no, it was still right where it belonged. Satisfied that all was well, he started running again, determined to get to the Red Sparrow before his sister did.

* * *

Yusei was prowling. He was used to being able to move freely wherever he liked, at least within the confines of Satellite island. In this place, it seemed that he had no boundaries. Nobody seemed to be trying to stop him from going anywhere, even walking straight off the grounds of the manor and into the city. Mikage had even suggested that one of the chauffeurs would be happy to drive him anywhere he would like to go. Yusei wasn't buying it. Goodwin hadn't gone through the bother of bringing him here just to let him escape again. He knew he was trapped; he just hadn't figured out how long his leash was yet, and he kept expecting at any moment to feel it tighten around his neck.

Other than that, though, his stay hadn't been so bad. He'd spent most of the morning working on his D-Wheel, a task that was infinitely easier with a proper selection of tools and free access to any parts he wanted. There always seemed to be at least one person hovering unobtrusively nearby, ready to sprint off and fetch whatever he asked or even expressed a preference for. When he'd gotten hungry, he'd gone to the kitchen and been assured by the staff that they would happily prepare anything he requested. As a child, he had never known the privilege of eating as much as he wanted of whatever he liked. There had been days when there wasn't enough to go around, and he and his playmates would lie in the shade and dream of the foods they head heard of, seen pictures of, but never tasted. He had wondered, while he ate, what Jack was doing, and whether he was doing anywhere near as well as Yusei was. After lunch, he had taken to wandering, exploring the entire spread of the mansion, or at least as much of it as he could get to. There were a lot of rooms that were closed to him. He suspected he could have picked the locks, but that would have gotten him into more trouble than he was ready to deal with, at least for the moment.

As evening began to draw near, he was summoned to the dining room to eat with the rest of the household. This turned out to mean that the Director himself finally made an appearance. Mikage also appeared to have an invitation to dine with them. Goodwin himself ate in silence, apparently deep in thought. Yusei found the silence unnerving. Meals, in his experience, were generally boisterous affairs, full of people chattering with each other and shouting across the table to pass the dishes down. He wouldn't have minded striking up a conversation with Mikage, but she plainly had something else on her mind and looked impatient to finish. After being answered in monosyllables a few times, he gave up and applied himself to his food.

His intention was to finish as quickly as he could, and then perhaps go back to the garage to work some more before he slept, but he was detained by the Director.

"Just a moment, Yusei," he said. "I want to talk to you. In private, if you would be so kind."

"Of course," answered Yusei. What else could he say?

Goodwin led him outside. The dining room was on an upper floor, with large glass doors at its rear, which opened onto a small balcony with tables and chairs on it, for the use of those who might enjoy taking a meal alfresco in fine weather. It had a fine view of the lake that surrounded the island, and of the city beyond. It was beautiful, especially at that time of day, when the sun was beginning to set and flush everything with a soft pink light. Yusei gazed out at the skyline. He could not see Satellite from here, but he knew in which direction it must lie, and he turned towards it like the needle of a compass. Goodwin gave him a knowing look.

"You miss the island," he said. Not _your friends_ or _your home_, just _the island_.

"I didn't want to come here," said Yusei.

"Neo Domino City is your home. You belong here," Goodwin replied. "You will adjust, in time. Haven't I treated you well?"

"That depends."

"Ingratitude doesn't suit you, Yusei," said Goodwin. "I went through a lot of trouble for you. More than you realize. It wasn't easy, arranging for you to come here."

"Why?" Yusei demanded. "What good am I to you?"

"As of now? No good at all," Goodwin replied. "I am thinking of the future. Your father was the most brilliant man I've ever known. This city was built, in a sense, on his shoulders - it is because of his invention that Neo Domino City could thrive this way. His death was a tremendous loss, not only to me as his friend, but to the world. You, Yusei, have inherited his genius. I've seen the D-Wheel you're building. You patched it together out of spare parts, didn't you? Without any sort of plan or blueprint but what you see in your head. And yet I'd swear that cobbled-together machine is as good as any you'd pay a fortune to have."

Yusei shifted, unaccustomed to such praise. "This is my second one. The first one leaked." It had not been much of a bike, that first D-Wheel. He'd never been able to work out exactly why it kept leaking coolant, and the air intake had broken at least once a month no matter what he did, but he and his friends had loved it because it was _theirs_. He and Jack and Crow had taken turns learning to drive it, racing it around the island and reveling in that fleeting sense of freedom. Security had found it about the time they had arrested Kiryu, and had confiscated it more or less on general principle. Yusei missed it.

"Your second try is as good as the work done by those who have been working on D-Wheels for years," said Goodwin. "And they have had training. You have only your observations and your innate genius. I would like to see what you could do with a proper education. If you stayed here, you could receive tutoring, go to college. You could do great things."

"For whom?" Yusei asked. "For you? Or the city? Or the people I actually care about?"

"Possibly all three," said Goodwin. "We shall see."

"You aren't telling me everything," said Yusei. "How can I trust you when I know you're holding something back?"

Goodwin turned away from him. "Some things are difficult to talk about. I know - you want me to tell you why things are the way they are on Satellite. You think it would be easy for me to say, 'Build a bridge. Connect the city to the island, rebuild the ruins, and make the two parts into one.' You believe I have that power, and that I am refusing to do so for some perverse and untenable reason."

"What else should I believe?" Yusei retorted.

"Let me tell you a story," said Goodwin. "I have told you before that I worked with your father in developing the Momentum engine. You have never seen that machine up close. It is an awe-inspiring sight, a machine that draws its power from the fundamental bonds of the particles that make up the universe to produce a never-ending supply of energy. Your father saw it as being... symbolic, in a way, a tangible monument to the harmony between all things. But there was someone else who worked with us. For some reason - envy, insanity, ignorance, who can say? - he chose to sabotage the project. He seized control of the Momentum and put it into _reverse_. Do you have any idea what that did?"

Yusei had a sneaking suspicion he knew. "Nothing good?"

"Chaos. It produced a wave of pure destructive force that scythed across the city like the wrath of an angry god. Winds, waves, earthquakes, all of nature thrown out of balance."

"_That_ was what created Satellite? Everyone said it was an earthquake..."

"That was a story, put out to reassure the masses," said Goodwin. "But I'm sure you've seen the proof for yourself. Isn't there a crater in the center of your island? A black pit, where no one dares to make their home, and even the cockroaches fear to tread. The poison of that negative energy still lingers there, and no sane man will set foot in such a place."

Yusei said nothing. It was true, though - there _was_ such a place. He had always avoided it; it gave him a bad feeling. The only people who lived there were outcasts that not even the other residents of Satellite wanted: the incurably violent criminals and the dangerously insane.

"And that's why you keep the island blocked off?" asked Yusei.

"You know about medicine, don't you? When a limb is gangrenous, you don't try to save it - you cut it off," said Goodwin. "But there is something else. The man who destroyed the Momentum and killed your father... he is still alive."

"How is that possible? He would have been directly on the site of the blast..."

"I could not say for certain," said Goodwin. "It is possible that the same energy that caused the explosion is also preserving him. Perhaps he took precautions. Perhaps he was simply lucky. Whatever the reason, he is still there. I do not think he can stray far from the source of his power, but I have reason to believe that he has some power to influence others to do his will for him. As long as the island is closed off, his influence is limited. Were I to open free passage between the island and the mainland, he would be able to extend his reach anywhere he pleased. I cannot allow that to happen. I was taking a risk in bringing you here... but I am putting my trust in the belief that you would never collude with the man who killed your father."

Yusei frowned. "You are suggesting that he has some kind of... magical powers?"

"He has power, yes. If 'magic' is the word for that which is not yet understood by science, then yes, you could call them magical," said Goodwin. "I ceased to be a scientist a long time ago. I am no longer interested in the technical explanations of how things happen. I am a politician, now, and that means I am interested in practical results. I am aware of a problem. I wish to prevent it from spreading. If possible, I would like to remove it entirely. I have been working toward that end, but it is time-consuming. If I could remove the last vestiges of negative energy from Satellite, it would be made safe. Then - and only then - could I give you your bridge and rebuild what is broken."

"How do we do that?" asked Yusei.

Goodwin smiled, a bit smugly. "You said 'we'. That is good. I was counting on you wanting to help."

It dawned on Yusei just what sort of a trap he'd been coaxed into, but like all good traps, he knew it was nothing he could walk away from.

"Just answer the question."

"Very well. The source of the danger lies in the ruins of the old Momentum. The heart of the machine still exists, leaking waves of negative energy into the surrounding area. It must be shut down. The master switch is located in the heart of the crater, but this will be heavily guarded, possibly inaccessible, if it is still even functioning. Moreover, the machine was meant to run forever, and would only be stopped in case of great emergencies, so the only way it can be shut down is by means of an override relay controlled by four locked towers, which are located on various points around Satellite. The towers are controlled by a set of five cards. You will need at least four of them to unlock the towers. Some of them have been lost. One of them is the Stardust Dragon."

"You brought me here for a card?"

"In a sense, yes. Do you believe it is only a bit of paper and ink? That card chose you as its owner, Yusei. It will only obey you, so only you can unlock the tower it controls," Goodwin replied. "But there is another reason. One of the other cards is in the hands of your old friend Jack Atlus."

"Ah," said Yusei. Goodwin didn't need to explain that comment any further - Yusei _knew_. Jack was a proud man; he wouldn't cooperate, not for any offerss the Director might make. He would do things his own way, and threats and promises wouldn't work. Yusei's powers of persuasion probably wouldn't work, either, but he had a slightly higher chance than anyone else. If nothing else, he would probably at least be able to get close enough to talk to him. Jack would never sit still long enough to let someone from Security explain matters to him.

"So, let me get this straight," said Yusei. "If I help you find Jack, you'll fix Satellite."

"Ideally, I would like you to help me find all of the remaining card holders," said Goodwin, "and there is still the matter of unlocking the control towers. But if you can do that, then yes, I give you my word that once the old generator is completely shut down, I will begin the rebuilding of Satellite."

"What about my friends? You mentioned Kiryu and Crow..."

"Jack and Crow will both receive full pardons," said Goodwin. "Kiryu... is a more difficult case. I can, at the least, get his death sentence mitigated. It is possible I can shorten his prison term. Is that enough?"

Yusei frowned. He still had the feeling that there was something more going on here that he didn't understand, and he was reluctant to agree to something without being sure of what he was getting into. On the other hand, the rewards were things that he normally would have said he would do anything for. If only he felt sure he knew what "anything" was going to end up meaning...

"How much time do I have to decide?" he asked.

"That depends on what you mean," said Goodwin. "I do not know how long it will be before our enemy decides he is tired of waiting. It could be tomorrow, or years from now. My promise to you is good until that happens, or until I die, whichever comes first. However, your friend Kiryu's sentence is due to be carried out in three days. You may want to think quickly."

Three days. Yusei felt his stomach clench. That wasn't enough time to think. That was just enough time to spend all of it worrying that he would choose the wrong thing. He felt Goodwin looking at him, and realized that he was expected to say "yes, I'll do it" right away, faced with a deadline like that.

"I'll think, then," he said.

* * *

Jack had not come home for dinner. Carly was in the kitchen, pensively scrubbing the dishes and pretended she wasn't listening to Saiga's radio as it rattled off the local news. So far, it had given her information about a minor house fire on the outskirts of town, a traffic accident, a sex scandal involving a local sporting star, and debate over the latest change in the city's budget, but so far, there had been no report of an escapee from Satellite being captured. For once in her life, she was hoping she _wouldn't_ hear something earth-shaking on the news.

"They're not going to catch him," said Saiga, from where he was tinkering with his laptop at the kitchen table. "Even if they did, they wouldn't put it on the news."

"How do you _know_?" She was annoyed to hear her voice come out as a whine.

"Because if they were going to say anything, they would have done it by now," said Saiga. He half-turned to face her, casually draping an arm over the back of his chair. "I know a thing or two about how Security operates. They may not know everything, but they come damned close to it. You bet your life, they knew you two were gone fifteen minutes after you left. They know your names, what you look like, how old you are, and probably what size shoes you wear. Take my word for it, if they wanted everyone to know you're here, your faces would be all over the news by now."

"So why aren't they?"

Saiga shrugged. "Probably to save face. Why would Security want anyone to know you two escaped? You're a petty thief at worst, and Jack hasn't got a criminal record - you two aren't a danger to the public. And of course, you aren't going to be walking around shouting, 'hey, we escaped from Satellite!' so you're not going to give them away. Anything they say will just make them look stupid for letting you escape in the first place. Take it from me, they're just going to keep quiet and try to catch you before anyone notices you're here."

"Oh," said Carly. She chewed her thumbnail thoughtfully. "That's not going to work too well for us, is it?"

Saiga gave a bark of laughter. "You're the ones who want to be famous. Me, I'm just along for the ride."

There was a sound downstairs, as of a door opening and closing, and then the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs. Carly looked up from her dishes, beaming.

"He's home!"

Saiga glanced at her. "How do you know it's him?"

Carly just looked at him as if she thought he might need to lie down for a while, and then hurried to meet Jack at the top of the stairs. He arrived, looking tired but pleased with himself, and carrying several shopping bags.

"Where have you been?" she asked him.

"Out," he replied. "I went back to the underground. The bookie says Security is on to us, but I got some dueling in. Here." He pushed the shopping bags into Carly's arms. "Look and see if this is everything we're going to need."

Carly obediently dumped the bags on the kitchen table, drawing a yelp of outrage from Saiga as his computer was pushed out of the way. The results of Jack's shopping appeared to be a few changes of clean clothes and some toiletries. She stared at it all.

"You bought _this_?" she said, holding up a box of tampons.

Jack glared at her. "I said they were for my bedridden mother. Are you happy?"

"You're an angel, Jack," she said, beaming.

"Hmph," he said, but he stopped glaring. "Go change your clothes. The ones from that bag are yours."

Carly picked up her new things from the heap on the table and bounded into the spare room to change. She had never realized just how tired she could get of wearing the same outfit again and again, especially once it had become as ragged and dirty as clothes could when you ate, slept, and worked in them for weeks on end. The new clothes weren't the style she would have chosen - lots of dark colors and cleanly tailored lines, quite unlike her casual jeans-and-T-shirts attire. On the whole, she decided she rather liked them; she felt as though some of Jack's fierce personality had been transferred to her. She thought she could feel braver wearing them. She brushed her hair back into place with her fingers, put her glasses back on, and stepped back outside.

"Did everything fit?" asked Jack.

Carly nodded. "It's fine." Then something occurred to her. "Wait a second... How did you know what sizes I wear?"

"I looked at your things while they were drying," he said.

"You what? _All of it?_ Jack!" She punched his shoulder. "It's not right to peek at a girl's bra! That's an invasion of privacy!"

"Ouch!" he complained, rubbing his arm. "What happened to being an angel?"

"That was before I knew you got into my things!"

"Only because I had to!"

"You could have just _asked_."

Saiga laughed. "You two fight like an old married couple."

"We do not," Jack grumped.

Carly blushed, looking flattered. "You think so?"

"I'm not having this conversation anymore," said Jack. "Saiga, where is that camera?"

"I'll get it," said Saiga, and retreated to his room. He returned a few moments later with camera in hand, and passed it to Carly.

"Here," said Jack, and handed her a map. She could see that he'd made a number of new marks on it since he'd started scribbling on it at breakfast. "These are the places where street duelists are known to gather. Pick a spot and stake it out. You know how to do it."

"Right," she said. She felt a flutter of nervousness. It was finally time...

"Don't screw this up," he told her.

"I won't!" she said. She put on her sweatshirt and pulled the hood up, and then started for the door, clutching her camera like a precious relic.

"Wait," said Jack. "You can't go out like that."

He disappeared into their room for a moment. When he returned, he was carrying the plastic mask that she had worn at the underground duel arena. He slipped it onto her face for her.

"There," he said. "That helps."

"I'm going to look like an idiot," she complained.

"Own it," said Jack. "Make it work for you. Develop a persona."

"Oh. Right. A persona," she said. "Hmm..." Come to think of it, she decided, that didn't sound so bad. Without a mask, she was just a clumsy, bespectacled girl from the sticks. With a mask on, though, she might be _anybody_. And that was the whole idea, wasn't it? The mysterious (perhaps even beautiful? A girl could dream, after all...) reporter with the story of the century, the one only she could tell...

"Yeah," she said, smiling slowly. "Yeah, I can do that!"

"Good luck out there, kiddo," said Saiga.

Carly nodded, tried to wave, and nearly dropped the things she was carrying. She scrambled to catch them, shouted a hasty goodbye, and scurried out of the room. She thought she heard Saiga chuckling at her, but she couldn't be sure.

_I'm going to do this,_ she told herself firmly. _I'll make everyone proud of me. Look out, world! This time I'm going to get it right!_

She stepped out of Saiga's shop and into the street. There were people wandering around: a few early-evening bar-goers, one or two women in short skirts and tall boots who looked inquiringly at the men passing by, a few thrill-seeking teenagers in clusters, and the rest of the motley crowd you were likely to find in a seedy neighborhood at sunset. None of them paid much attention to Carly, but she kept the hood of her sweatshirt up and avoided meeting anyone's eyes, just in case.

After she'd gone a block or two, she paused under a lamp post and unfolded her map to get a better look at the areas Jack had marked. Most of them were a good distance away. It seemed the street duelists didn't care to get mixed up with the underground duelists. She was going to have to walk a distance.

_I sure hope Jack gets that D-Wheel soon. I don't want to have to take the bus like this..._

In the meantime, there was nothing she could do but walk. She picked the area that looked the closest and struck out. It was, at least, a nice night to be out walking. If she hadn't been in a hurry, she would have enjoyed admiring the brightly lit buildings and the clear night sky. As it was, she scampered along, trying to stay inconspicuous. With any luck, her dark clothing, raised hood, and bowed posture would make people mistake her for an angst-ridden teenager.

Jack's map eventually led her to a small public park, just large enough to hold a pond and a few trees and benches. By daylight, it would have been a good place for a picnic or a game of frisbee. By the light of a waxing moon, the lake gleamed silver and the trees seemed full of blue shadows. Carly took a moment to admire the beauty of it before turning on her camera and fiddling with the settings, trying to find the best way of filming something so that it wouldn't look too dark. She would be mortified if she managed to film a duel and it turned out to look like nothing but a collection of shadows.

She had just about gotten it to where it looked good, when she heard the sound of voices approaching. Hastily, she dove for a nearby tree and managed to scamper up into its branches. From there, she had a good view of a large group of people - mostly men, but a few proud-looking women as well - all of them carrying Duel Disks. They gathered in a circle on one of the clear patches of grass, and one of them produced a rather ordinary-looking cardboard box. He said something that Carly couldn't hear clearly, but it prompted a reaction from the onlookers. Some of them began going through their pockets, producing handfuls of cash or cards, which they tossed into the box. The rest shook their heads sadly, evidently unable to muster up enough of a bet to be allowed into the game. These spoke quietly to each other, and Carly suspected they were making side-bets, hoping to win enough money off of each other to join in on the next round. The rest of the duelists drew cards to determine who would go first, and everyone else arranged themselves along the sidelines to cheer for their preferred player. Carly stealthily moved to another branch to get a better view.

_Hey, I know that guy! Dick Pitt - he's famous! Lucky!_ Film of a well-known duelist would bring in viewers, and she wanted all she could get. She trained her camera on him. _Go on, guys - give me a good show!_

For the next hour and more, Carly sat in a tree. It wasn't long before her muscles began to ache from the strain of holding the same position for so long, and her fingers were frozen by the chilly breeze off the pond until she was sure they would have to be thawed off the camera later. She had her doubts about being able to get out of the tree, at least without falling out of it, but she put all of that out of her mind. The only thing that was important to her at the moment was making sure she got everything on film. She could worry about little things like hypothermia later. At last, the gamers decided that they were done challenging each other and began counting up their winnings. Carly gave a little sigh of relief at the thought of being able to get back down to solid ground and go home to where there would be a hot drink available. She hoped the duelists would leave soon so she could get down without being noticed.

Then something happened that drove all thoughts of leaving out of her head. From out of the darkness, a new duelist appeared. Carly guessed the newcomer was female; it was hard to tell from a distance. Whoever she was, she wore a long black cloak with a hood, from which tendrils of reddish hair escaped, and her face was covered by a white mask. Carly, concealed in her tree, nevertheless felt a chill, as though the eyes hidden behind that mask had seen straight through her cover. It had to be her imagination that this woman knew exactly where she was, but...

"Who among you has the courage to duel me?" said the stranger.

"Hey, lady," said one of the duelists, "I don't know who you think you are, but around these parts, we play for money. Let's see your stakes."

In response, the woman flicked a card out of her deck and held it up before her. Something bright flashed from it, and a bush beneath Carly's tree suddenly burst into crackling flames. The duelists exclaimed. So did Carly; she liked words, and she had picked up a number of new ones in Satellite. She used them all now, in various combinations, but there was too much commotion going on for anyone to notice one more voice in the general hubbub.

"Here are my stakes," said the robed woman. "Duel me, and I might let all of you go home alive."

There was an uncertain moment, as the group seemed to waver between wanting to run and wondering if she would actually let them. No one wanted to end up like the shrubbery. At last, one of their number was pushed forward to face her. He looked rather pale, but determined to go through with it.

"Since you challenged me, I get the first move," he said.

She nodded and said nothing. Her silence seemed to unnerve the other player, who fumbled his deck as he tried to draw his first hand. He set a monster, apparently at random, and set a few a few trap cards with the air of someone getting firmly entrenched.

As it turned out, he needed entrenching. As it also turned out, it wasn't enough. The robed woman summoned a monster to the field and sent it launching at her opponent. It was plainly stronger than the defense monster, and tore straight through it without resistance. That was to be expected. But when the attacking monster left gouges in the turf...

_How is that possible? It's just a hologram..._

But it wasn't a hologram - it couldn't have been. The next attack flung the young man off his feet and into the arms of his friends, and soon he was so battered he could barely stand.

"Stop it!" shouted a girl in the crowd. There was an edge of tears to her voice that made Carly wonder fleetingly if she was a sister or a girlfriend. "You're hurting him! He can't win like this - just let him go!"

The woman's blank mask was implacable. "He doesn't deserve to be let go."

"What are you, some kind of monster?" someone demanded.

"She's a _witch_!"

"Yes," said the woman. "I am a witch. And I will act according to my nature. Make him get up."

The crowd tried to help their champion to his feet. He was breathing heavily, and there was a cut across his cheek from where he hadn't dodged an oncoming monster in time. His eyes didn't seem to be focused anymore.

_This is wrong,_ Carly thought, staring through her zoom lens at his white, bleeding face. _This isn't a duel, this is torture..._

The bitter end came quickly. The witch made her last move, and her victim fell to the ground, unconscious or... no, his friends were gathering around him, helping him to his feet and moving him deeper into their ranks, hiding him. The robed woman watched them all impassively.

"Who else?" she asked.

There wasn't going to be anyone else. The crowd edged away from her as one being, eyes all pinned on her. She continued watching them silently until they could no longer bear it, and they scattered, disappearing into the darkness, dragging their semi-conscious friend with them. The cloaked woman stood a while longer, and Carly thought she heard her mutter, "Cowards," before turning and gliding away.

Without thinking about it, Carly scrambled out of the tree, half falling from her branch and landing with a _whumph_ in what used to be a shrub, her shoes stirring up clouds of smoke and ash as she staggered and regained her footing. She had enough presence of mind to turn her camera off, to save its battery, and then hurried after the cloaked woman.

_This could be really big,_ she thought, her heart racing with excitement. Despite what had just happened, she felt no fear, only a sense of elation. This was a story, and it was happening _right in front of her!_ Moving as silently as she could, she followed the woman, always keeping her just barely in sight. They were moving, she soon realized, in the general direction of the downtown area. There were larger buildings than there were near Saiga's place, but they were mostly businesses, closed now save for a few lonely workers burning the midnight oil. Cars rushed by, in a hurry to get somewhere else, but no one stopped to bother the two masked women who moved swiftly down the sidewalks.

At last, the witch finally came to one of the more impressive buildings, something that looked more like an office building than an apartment complex, though it was brightly lit inside where all the other buildings were empty. She started up the front steps, but slowed and stopped partway up. She looked around, and Carly quickly found a corner to duck behind.

"Don't bother to hide," said the witch. "I know you're there."

Carly deemed it wisest not to say anything.

"You are not afraid of me," the witch continued. "Not as frightened as you should be." There was a pause before she added, flatly, factually: "I could kill you."

Somewhere there was a thought, in a place so far away that it might have been in another person entirely, that Carly ought to turn around and run as far and fast as she could, but she couldn't obey it. She was rooted to the spot.

"Come out where I can see you," the witch commanded.

Slowly, reluctantly, Carly moved. She stood in the middle of the sidewalk with her camera clutched before her like a shield. The witch walked closer to her, until they were only inches apart. A stray thought struck her: the witch was wearing perfume. She smelled of roses. How could anything so horrible smell so sweet?

That thought was driven from her mind as the witch reached out and pulled Carly's mask away. Carly gave a yelp and tried to shield herself, but it was too late.

"I see," said the witch. "So... you, too, are an outcast."

Was that a hint of sympathy in that cold voice? Carly seized on it like a lifeline, and used it to draw her courage back.

"Yes?" she offered.

"Hm," said the witch. There was no reading the face behind that mask, but her posture was thoughtful. "Do you have a deck?"

Carly reached into her pocket and produced her cards, but couldn't quite bring herself to hand them over. Instead, she fanned them, so that their faces could be clearly seen. The witch studied them.

"A fortune-telling deck," she remarked. "Does it work?"

Most of the time, if someone had asked this question, Carly would have laughed nervously and said the fortune-telling thing was just a hobby, just something she did for fun, really, not something she really _believed_. Not that it was true; it was just what she had to say so people wouldn't think she was crazy. She hadn't even come out and said as much to Jack, and she doubted that Saiga even knew her cards existed. But she didn't think she could not tell the truth to someone like this.

"Yes," she said.

"I see." The witch stared at her a while longer before finally turning away with a sigh. "You're not strong enough, though. You wouldn't survive being trained."

"Trained for what?" Carly heard herself asked, and winced internally. Sometimes a reporter's instincts could be a real pain.

"To be one of us. We could protect you," said the witch. "But it wouldn't work."

"What wouldn't?" Carly persisted.

"You had better go," said the witch. "If you follow me, I'll have no choice but to turn you over to Divine. He'll test you. You'll never make it. Go away."

There was no arguing with that tone of voice. Carly fled. She pummeled down the street, tripping on cracks in the sidewalk, stumbling and staggering and avoiding falling by sheer willpower - not because she didn't want to hurt herself, but because falling would inevitably mean _dropping the camera_, and she'd as soon cut her hand off. She ran until her chest ached and her throat burned, and then she stopped to lean against a wall and catch her breath.

_That didn't go so well,_ she thought. She wished there had been a chance to ask more questions... or rather, to get more answers. But at least she'd gotten all the dueling on video. She checked her camera. Most of its memory had been used up; there was nothing more she could do tonight unless she went home and changed out the memory card. It was probably time to leave. Besides, she had a lot of writing to do tonight.

When she returned home, she found everything more or less as she had left it. Saiga was at his best computer, tinkering with lines of code. Jack sat nearby, sipping coffee and looking out the window. He jerked to alertness, though, when he heard her come in. His eyes swept over her, taking in her bedraggled appearance. Her shoes and the cuffs of her slacks were now covered in ash, and there was a twig in her hair. He raised an eyebrow.

"Do I want to know?" he asked.

"I've been busy," she said. "You won't _believe_ what happened!"

"I'm not sure I want to hear it," said Jack.

"But there was this woman! She started summoning monsters, and they were really real! And she blew up a bush! The guy couldn't even _walk_ afterwards!"

"If this is how you write your articles, I'm going to get a new reporter," said Jack.

Carly shook her head. "There was a woman who was summoning real monsters that did real damage to real people. I got it all on film! This could be a really big story!"

"No," said Jack. "No story."

"What? Why?" asked Carly.

"Look," said Jack. "Why are we doing this?"

"Because we want to be famous?" she guessed. "But this is..."

"A big story," Jack finished, "and that's exactly why you _shouldn't use it_. The idea was that we were going to do this _together_. I was going to be your story, and you were going to write about me. That was the plan. What made you think it would be a good idea to go looking for another story?"

Carly blushed. "I guess I just wasn't thinking..."

"Obviously," snapped Jack. "You weren't thinking of anyone but yourself, were you?"

"I guess not," she said, hanging her head.

"Lay off the girl," said Saiga. "You can't blame her for following her instincts."

"Yes, I can," said Jack. "This isn't my style either. If I can adjust, then so can she."

"You're right," said Carly. "I'm sorry. I guess I was being selfish. I screwed up, didn't I?"

Jack's expression softened very slightly. "You didn't. I would have wanted to follow a powerful duelist, too. Just don't do it again, all right? You'll get hurt, doing stupid things like that."

_He was worried about me,_ Carly realized in a flash. She felt her face warming again, with mingled embarrassment and pleasure. In hindsight, it probably had been a dangerous thing, chasing off after a strange and highly destructive woman. She could have gotten hurt. If the witch was to be believed, she could have gotten killed. It had definitely been stupid... but it was nice to think Jack cared what happened to her.

"I won't do anything like it again," she said. "I'll behave next time. I promise!"

"Good," said Jack. "Now - did you manage to get anything useful on that camera of yours?"

"You bet!" she said. "I got really lucky - there was a famous duelist there, and I got some good film of him! I'll just need to do a little editing, and it will be ready to go."

"Anything I can do to help?" asked Saiga.

"Get coffee," she said. "And give me the computer."

Saiga obligingly saved whatever he was working on and scooted out of the way so Carly could have the machine to herself. She tossed aside her mask and cloak, plugged the camera into the computer, and cracked her knuckles, looking the very picture of a woman getting down to business. She pulled up a word processor and began to type at a rapid pace. When Saiga brought her a large mug of coffee, she nodded slightly in acknowledgment and reached for the mug, apparently navigating toward it by pure instinct, because her eyes never left the screen. Jack stood aside and watched, impressed in spite of himself. He had never actually seen her doing what she did best. It made for a dramatic change. She almost looked competent.

"There!" she said at last. "All done! You two read it, and tell me what you think."

She scooted out of the way to let Jack and Saiga have a look at her work. Jack leaned in for a better view, curious in spite of himself. He was pleased and rather relieved to see that she'd done a good job of commenting on the duels - she may not have been a serious duelist herself, but she obviously knew the game well, and had made interesting and insightful comments. She had used a comfortable, gossipy style that he imagined would draw in a wide reader base.

"Looks fine to me," said Saiga.

"It will do," Jack agreed.

"All right! I'm posting it," said Carly. "I just need an account..."

She opened a window to a blogging site that she had selected earlier and started filling in blanks.

"Have you decided what you're calling yourself?" Saiga asked her.

"I've been to busy to think about it," she admitted.

For a moment, she pondered. Then she took her cards out again and drew one at random. She nodded.

"This will do," she said. "This will be me. Fortune Lady."

**To Be Continued...**


	8. Crow Keeps a Promise

**Crow Keeps a Promise**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Ushio arrived right on the stroke of ten, carrying two cans. He'd had to carry them carefully, because he had come on a Security D-Wheel. There weren't a lot of places to put cans on something like that, and he needed both hands for driving, but he'd gotten them there in the end. He was rather proud of his ingenuity in getting them this far.

He parked his D-Wheel carefully in the garage, next to the shiny red almost-a-D-Wheel that he'd seen parked there this morning, and wondered briefly who it belonged to. Someone had been working hard on it; it was a lot closer to being a D-Wheel than it had been the last time he had seen it. It was a nice custom job, and he wouldn't have minded having one like it. For the moment, he was stuck borrowing Security vehicles, which were good in their way but not quite the same as owning something for himself.

All of those thoughts, however, were driven away by the sight of Mikage bounding into the garage to meet him. She looked glad to see him, which pleased him enormously, but he hadn't quite finished having that thought before it dawned on him that she looked... a bit different. She was wearing the same skirt she had worn the last time he'd talked to her, but now she had on a pale pink shirt with ruffles on it, and she'd rearranged her hair a bit and used a sparkly pink barrette in it to hold it in place. She was wearing knee socks, like a school girl. He thought she might have done something different with her makeup, but it was hard to tell. Somehow, though, her eyes seemed larger, her expression softer.

"What do you think?" she asked. "Do I look like a Security officer?"

"You look like you're out of school for the weekend," he blurted.

She laughed. "That's the idea. Are you ready to go?"

"Er, yeah," he said, trying to get his thoughts sorted out. They were attempting to go in three or four directions at once. At least one direction involved the neckline of her shirt, which was rather lower than what she'd been wearing on previous encounters. "Um. I brought coffee." He held a can out to her.

"Oh, that was good of you," she said. "Exactly what I needed - I've been going non-stop all day."

She opened the can and took a long drink. She didn't look like she needed it, Ushio thought. She looked charged with energy, like this was the most exciting thing she'd ever done, Christmas and her birthday and New Year's all rolled into one. She had clearly been telling the truth when she had said she wanted to work in the field.

"So, uh... what's with the outfit?" he heard himself asking.

She stopped drinking to look at him. "Isn't it obvious?"

"Er... no," he admitted.

She gave him a smile that was not innocent at all. It was the look of a woman who knew exactly what she wanted, and how she planned to get it.

"Do you know how to play 'Good Cop, Bad Cop'?"

Ushio thought a moment, and then returned the smile.

"Yeah, I know that one," he said.

Within a short while, the two of them had taken Mikage's car and parked it in a garage near Night Street. The rest of the distance, they walked, with Ushio going ahead and keeping an eye open for danger, while Mikage tagged along behind him, eyes bright as she stared at everything like she'd never seen anything like it before. The heels of her shoes made little clickety-click noises as she nearly skipped along the sidewalk. He wondered how much of her excitement was just for show, and how much was genuine interest. A few people turned to stare at her. Innocent-looking girls with sparkly hair barrettes did not often turn up on Night Street, only the occasional woman _trying_ to look innocent at a customer's request.

Ushio was looking forward to seeing how this played out.

They reached a bar. Its outside was grim and gray, and the inside wasn't much better, but there were still a few people in it, drinking and smoking and talking in low voices. They all stopped what they were doing to stare when the two officers came in. It was amazing how quickly a room full of people could fade out of sight at the arrival of a tall, strong-looking man in a uniform. A small percentage, the ones who knew there was nothing that could be pinned on them, leered at Mikage, who ignored them. Ushio stifled the urge to stop them from looking by blackening their eyes, and instead eased across the room to the bar, where the bartender was busy polishing a perfectly clean mug and watching him out of the corner of his eye.

"Help you with somethin'?" he asked warily.

Ushio flashed his badge. "I'm Officer Ushio Tetsu. This is my assistant, Mikage. We're looking for information."

"Don't know what I could do to help you," said the bartender. "I just serve drinks, right?"

Mikage was wandering around in a vague fashion, staring at everything.

"This is an interesting place," she said. "Do you serve milkshakes?"

The bartender grinned at her. "We do for you, honey."

"Oh, good," she said. "I _like_ milkshakes."

"We're looking for a guy named Saiga," said Ushio, pretending the whole exchange hadn't happened. "I hear he hangs out in these parts. Seen him lately?"

"Couldn't say," said the bartender. "I don't go around asking for people's life stories."

"But people talk around you," Ushio persisted. "You're bound to have heard something."

"No idea," he said. "Maybe he comes here, maybe he doesn't. You'll have to ask someone else."

"What's in those bottles?" asked Mikage, pointing.

"Nothing you want, honey. That's for men to drink," said the bartender. "Gimme a minute, though, and I'll fix you something nice, okay?"

"Really? For me?" she exclaimed, clapping her hands together. "But... I haven't got any money..."

"That's all right. Today it's on the house," he told her.

"Aw, you're so _sweet_," she gushed.

"Can we stay on topic here?" Ushio complained. "Look, withholding information from Security is a criminal offense. If you don't speak up, you're going to be in big trouble. Tell me what I need to know, and we leave quietly. You don't talk, I might have to get... persuasive."

"Look, I can't tell you what I don't know," said the bartender. He was busily mixing things in a tall glass. He topped it off with a cherry and passed it to Mikage, who accepted it with an expression of delight.

"Ooh, it's got whipped cream," she said. She plucked the cherry off the top of it and began daintily licking the cream off of it. Several people were staring openly. Ushio forced himself to keep his expression impassive.

"I say you know something," he snapped. "And I'm not leaving until you tell me what it is!"

"Ushio, don't be so mean," Mikage scolded. "He doesn't know anything. And he made me one of these... dye-kwee-rees?"

"Daiquiri," the bartender corrected. "You like it?"

"It's good!" she said. "Thank you _so_ much. You're darling."

"No problem," said the bartender. "You can come back here anytime. I'll keep something special in reserve for you."

"I'll do that!" she said. "If I can get away from _him_. He won't let me have any fun."

"Yeah, I know his type," said the bartender, smiling in what he presumably thought was a charming way. "Don't you worry - I know how to show you a really good time."

"You're bound to know more than him," said Mikage. "What's the big deal about this Saiga guy, anyway?"

"Oh, who knows? He's just some kind of computer whiz," said the bartender. "A hacker or something. I figured he'd get in trouble with the law sooner or later..."

"So you _do_ know something about him," said Mikage.

"Of course I - what? Wait!"

Mikage flashed her badge. "Obstruction of justice is a serious charge. You should think a little more carefully about what you say."

"But I..."

"Talk," said Ushio, gripping the bartender's shirt, "or you ain't gonna be doing any more talking for a long, long time, get it?"

The bartender hesitated for a moment. Then he abruptly brought his fist up to connect with Ushio's jaw. Ushio rocked backwards and tried to regain his balance. The bartender made a dash around the counter. He came up behind Mikage and grabbed her, pinning her arms, while she shrieked in alarm and outrage.

"Stay back or the girl gets it," he said.

"Let her go!" Ushio demanded.

"Not unless you..."

That was as far as he got. In the next instant, Mikage had kicked him very hard in the shin with the solid wood heel of her shoe, and the raked it downwards to slam onto his instep. The bartender bellowed in pain. In his moment of distraction, he loosened his grip, and Mikage managed to get a hand free. She grabbed for his arm and dug her manicured fingernails deeply into the nerves and tendons at the inside of his wrist, making him howl with new levels of intensity. He shook free of her, only to have her drive her elbow backwards as hard as she could. She had been more or less aiming for his gut, but she was a small woman and her attacker was a tall man, so her point of contact ended up being a bit lower than that. Then the noise was all over, except for the retching. She stepped away from the pathetically curled-up man on the floor as if he were of no more importance than a throw rug.

"Would anyone _else_ like to tell us where to find Saiga?" she asked calmly.

When they left the bar, it was with one handcuffed and still-whimpering bartender, who was handed over into the care of several lesser officers summoned for that purpose. It was also with the testimony of a number of people who had suddenly decided it was better for Saiga to get mixed up with the law than for them to make Mikage angry.

"That was _incredible_ said Ushio, as he followed her back to the car. "I mean, that was just... incredible! Where did you learn to _do_ that?"

She gave him a very sweet smile. "I'm a Security officer too, Ushio. I _did_ learn self-defense. I had most of the same training you did, actually."

"You're incredible," he said again. "I feel like I ought to buy you a drink or something, for that."

"Maybe you should," she agreed. "His other flaws aside, he makes terrible daiquiris. Probably not much call for them around here."

"You actually drink those things?" he asked.

"Sometimes," she said. "But you really shouldn't buy me anything. You already brought me coffee. Besides, we're on the job. What about you? Are you all right? I saw that man hit you..."

"I'm fine," Ushio assured him. "I don't think he's ever lifted anything heavier than a beer can. I barely felt it, I promise."

"Well, if you're sure," she said. "So what do you think - should we go pay Saiga a visit?"

"Not now," Ushio said, after some consideration. "We want to make sure everybody's at home. They probably don't go out much in full daylight, when they'd be easy to spot, so they probably stay home all day and go out at night."

"Good thinking," said Mikage. "I guess we should call it a day, then. We did good work, didn't we?"

"The best," Ushio said.

He held the car door open for her, earning another smile, before getting into the vehicle himself. He was willing enough to let her do the driving; he wasn't sure he could, right now, without crashing into something. His mind was in a whirl. Up until that evening, he had been imagining Mikage as a sort of untouchable ideal of purity and sweetness, a sort of an angel with a business jacket and a badge. But he'd just seen her take on a man twice her size and leave him whimpering on the floor, and she hadn't even turned around. She had fought - fought _dirty_, even. That wasn't the kind of behavior he'd expected from an angel.

Well, so much for that silly idea. He was completely over that now.

"So, I'll see you again tomorrow, won't I? Once you've talked to Saiga?"

"Absolutely," he said. "You can count on it."

"Good," she said. "I'm curious to see how this is going to turn out."

Ushio just nodded, smiled, and gave a dreamy sigh.

_I think I'm in love._

* * *

Crow prowled restlessly. He had spent all his time since he'd met Kiryu attempting to make plans, and so far, not much had come of it. At this point, he was forced to admit that planning just wasn't his strongest suit. Action and impulse were his specialties - he watched for opportunities, he moved, he struck, he got out again. Possibly that was why he kept landing in prison. But it had generally not mattered, because it was only _him_ who went to prison. Planning a jailbreak, getting someone past so many guards and locks and who knew what else...

_There's got to be a way... Kiryu is counting on me, and if I don't help him, he'll..._

He shook his head and dropped down onto his cot.

_Who am I trying to kid? I can't break out of this stupid jail. I'd end up getting us both killed._

Even as he was thinking this, he heard the sound of footsteps, and he made himself small and inconspicuous. There were some guards he could get on well with, but some of them, it was best if they never realized he existed.

"...moved his execution date up, just like that," one was saying.

"I wonder why?" another replied. "It's not like he ever does anything anymore. He just sits in his cell and talks to himself all day."

"Well, maybe that's why. It's not much punishment if he's lost his marbles. Might as well get him out of the way."

"I won't be sorry to see him go, anyway. Frankly, the guy gives me the creeps. Have you heard him laugh?"

"You've got to be pretty insane to set off a bomb in Security HQ..."

"Oh well. Three more days. That's not too long to wait. Still strange, though, that the Director would just change the date like this. I wonder what he's playing at?"

"Sometimes I think he likes his power too much for his own good. He's getting strange ideas. You remember last month, when..."

They went around the corner, and the conversation became too distant and echoey to hear. It didn't matter. Crow had already heard the important part. The person who had bombed Security could only be Kiryu, and his execution date had been moved up. Three days...

_There's no time for thinking. We have to get out of here_ now.

He began to grin. It was nice not to have to think too much.

Instead, he waited, keeping an ear perked towards the door. It hadn't been a coincidence that he'd overheard the guards talking about Kiryu; the gossip seemed to be all over the compound today. Everyone seemed to be interested in the fate of the man who had taken such a bold and destructive strike against Security, and they were surprised that the Director had taken a sudden personal interest in the man's fate. Speculation as to the reason behind the change abounded, but no one seemed to have any firm facts. None of it was of any use to Crow. He kept listening anyway, because there was always the chance that something would come up. At last, his friend Haseo passed by, and Crow flagged him down.

"Hey," he said. "I need to talk to you about something."

"What is it?" asked Haseo, coming obligingly closer.

"Do you mind if I come out for a bit?"

"What for?"

"Well, it's like this," said Crow. "That guy everybody is talking about today, Kiryu - he's an old friend of mine. I mean, we were like brothers, back in the day. I'd really like to see him again before, well, you know... To say goodbye."

"Oh..." said Haseo, face downcast. "Sorry, Crow, I completely forgot. You were in his gang, weren't you?"

"Yeah, feels like forever ago," said Crow. "We kinda had a fight the last time I saw him, before he got arrested. I did something stupid and never got to apologize. If... if he's got to go, I at least want for... for us to part as friends." He didn't mean to let it happen, but his eyes welled up with tears as he spoke, so he let them spill down his cheeks. It really did hurt, to think of what might happen if he failed.

"I understand," said Haseo. "It's okay, Crow. I'll take you to see him. It's the least I can do."

"Thanks, Haseo," Crow replied. "You're a real friend."

Haseo unlocked Crow's door and ushered him out of his cell.

"Better make this quick," said Haseo. "Everybody is more interested in the guy than usual today. I don't want anyone to know I let you out."

"I'll make it fast," Crow promised.

They hurried down the hallways, keeping a sharp lookout for anyone who might try to obstruct them. At last, they made it to the wing where the condemned were waiting out their last days. There was a stirring there, a sort of watchfulness that hadn't been there the last time Crow had visited. They all seemed to know that one of their number would be leaving them soon, and were made nervous by it, because every prisoner that left was a reminder that they might be next.

Kiryu was waiting for him, pressed pathetically up against the bars of his door like a dog waiting for his master to come home.

"Crow," he said. "I knew you'd come. I knew you'd come..."

"When have I ever let you down?" said Crow. "Don't worry about a thing, buddy. Everything is gonna be all right..."

He clasped Kiryu's hand through the bars of the door. Kiryu's fingers felt cold as ice, and there were shadows under his eyes. Crow could only guess that Kiryu had heard the gossip, too, if they hadn't told him directly. For a moment, Crow felt a stab of annoyance. What did the Director think he was doing, changing the dates around? Was he just doing this for fun?

"Crow..." said Haseo uncertainly. He met Crow's gaze, and his eyes were saying, _You can't promise anything, not now._

"Haseo," said Crow, "you've always been a good friend to me. I want you to know I really appreciate it... and I'm really sorry for what I'm about to do."

"What? Crow..."

That was as far as Haseo got before Crow hit him. It was a good hit, and Haseo went down like a ton of bricks. Crow waited a moment, breathing hard, waiting to see if he would get up. He was aware of the many eyes on him. Everyone on the hall seemed to be holding their breath, waiting to see what was going to happen next.

"I really am sorry, buddy. I'll make it up to you, somehow," he said. He knelt by his friend's prone body and took the key card from his pocket. He swiped it through the lock on Kiryu's door and watched it slide open.

"Come on out," he said. "You're free now."

That wasn't true, of course - they still had to get out of the prison compound, but that could wait for the moment. Kiryu stepped slowly out of his cell as if he had nearly forgotten how to walk, and draped his arms around Crow, leaning his head on Crow's shoulder.

"Thank you. Thank you. I knew you would do it," he said.

"Thank me later," Crow said. "We've still got a ways to go."

"I'm out of that room. That's almost good enough," said Kiryu. "What do we do now?"

Crow hadn't thought that far ahead. He thought now. He looked around at all the other people who were watching him hopefully from their own barred cells, and he looked down at the card in his hand.

"Let's raise hell," he said.

Kiryu grinned, some of the old fire returning to his expression. "I like that."

Within a few moments, there was absolute chaos. Crow hurried down the hall, opening every door he came to. He did the death row inmates first, just because they were closest, but after that, he released everyone he happened to pass. A few of them had been cooped up for so long that they no longer had the willpower to leave, but most of them burst from their rooms as soon as the doors were opened. They rushed off in all directions, half-wild with freedom. Crow was happy enough to let them run ahead, hopefully distracting the guards from what he was doing. A few of them ganged up on a couple of unsuspecting guards and stole their cards as well, continuing Crow's work and adding to the general chaos.

_There are more of us than there are of them,_ he thought as he hurriedly opened doors and more doors. _If I can just get enough of us together, there won't be enough guards to stop everyone..._

"Which way do we go?" Kiryu asked. "I don't remember..."

"Don't worry - I do," said Crow. "I've been in and out of this place a million times." Granted, it had usually been in the company of a lot of armed guards, and it had always been with the goal of hustling him back to the island instead of into the city. Still, Crow was naturally observant and had a good memory, and he thought he could find _some_ way out.

The chaos in the hallways was growing exponentially. By now, the guards had caught on that something wasn't right, and were busy trying to put things in order again, which naturally only made more racket. Most of the people who had been released were the ones who had the least to lose if they fought back, and they were determined not to be put back in their cages again. The hallways, hard and stark as they were, produced good echoes, and made the few dozen escapees sound like a mob of thousands, which was making it difficult for the guards to work out the exact size and location of their problems. It was worse that the inside of the jail was round, so that trouble could easily move in both directions at once. Someone, Crow thought, should have thought of that sooner.

"Ha, this is great!" said Kiryu, observing the chaos with bright eyes. The effort of running had brought a flush to his pale face, and he looked almost like his old self. Only the zigzag mark down his cheek showed that anything had ever happened to him. Crow felt a momentary pang. There was no way he could let them put Kiryu behind bars again. It would kill him as surely as any electric chair or injection.

First, though, he was going to have to get past the man in his way.

"Where do you boys think you're going?" the jailer bellowed.

Crow and Kiryu halted. They didn't have much other choice. Takasu the warden was a big man - not just fat, though he was certainly that, but broad-shouldered and muscular as well, like a sumo wrestler. He filled the hallway; no one could have gotten past him without a certain amount of awkward squirming.

"You two," he said, "are in deep shit."

Crow flashed his brightest, most cheerful, I-haven't-a-brain-in-my-head grin.

"We were just going to see what all the noise is about," he said.

"Yeah, right," Takasu scoffed. "And I'm the Queen of Sheba."

"You ain't got the looks for that," Crow said cheerfully.

He watched as Takasu's face contorted as he tried to work out what Crow was talking about, and then turn furious.

"Why you-!" he bellowed.

He made a lunge at Crow, but the smaller and quicker man was already gone. Crow darted through the warden's legs and ended up on the floor behind him. Quickly, Crow turned on his back and kicked with both feet, striking squarely on the big man's blubbery behind. Takasu, taken by surprise, staggered forwards, trying to keep his balance. Kiryu grabbed his shirt to help him fall face forwards on the floor. The whole building seemed to shake as he landed. Nimble as a monkey, Crow jumped on top of his back. The warden went "oof" but Crow didn't take any notice of that. He was going through Takasu's pockets.

"What are you looking for?" asked Kiryu. He watched Taksu try to lever himself up, and kicked his arms out from under him. The jailer hit the ground with another "oof".

"His key," said Crow. "He'll have the best one - the one that can get you in and out of anything."

"Hey, you, you can't take that!" Takasu shouted. "That key is - mrph!"

Whatever he was going to say was cut off abruptly, as Kiryu's foot came in sudden contact with his mouth.

"Got it!" said Crow, holding up the card. "Now, let's get outta here!"

"What do we do with this guy?" asked Kiryu.

Crow thought about it a moment. "What do _you_ want to do with him?"

A moment later, a number of other inmates came dashing up that same hallway to find Takasu the warden lying on the floor, beaten into semi-consciousness and stripped down to his underwear, with his hands and feet tied up behind him with his own belt. The prisoners converged around him. He had not been a popular jailer.

In the meantime, Crow and Kiryu were sprinting down hallways, down stairs, down into the heart of the structure. Somewhere, Crow knew, there had to be a control room. It was probably as far away from anything a prisoner was likely to be able to reach as possible. Luckily, most of the guards were upstairs, trying to quell the uprising Crow had started. There were security cameras, of course, but they wouldn't be of any use until he was long gone.

_Heh, this is a big deal for me: the first time I've actually stolen a person..._

A large and heavily-reinforced door wore a sign that said "CONTROL ROOM". Crow thought he should try that one. He swiped the stolen card through it and watched with satisfaction as it swished open. He and Kiryu darted inside and shut the door behind them.

"Let's take a breather," said Crow. "Nobody would think to look for us here."

Kiryu looked around at the room. "This is good. You could do a lot from here..."

"Know how any of this junk works?"

"I think I could figure it out," said Kiryu.

He investigated the terminals, and Crow watched with interest as his friend pushed a button here, flipped a switch there, and turned a few knobs. There were a few screens showing the view from various security cameras, from which Crow could see doors opening all over the compound. Kiryu had apparently decided to let _everyone_ out.

"Hey, while you're at it," he said, "can you see about erasing the video records?"

"I'll see what I can do," said Kiryu.

He pushed a few more buttons, _hmm_-ed to himself a bit, then pushed a few more. The computer screens went blank.

"Now let's get out of here," he said. "Do you think you can find your way out from here?"

"No problem," said Crow.

"Good. We're going to have to go fast."

"Why is that?"

"Because this isn't going to last very long."

With that, he hit a final combination of switches, and all the lights went out.

"What'd you do that for?" asked Crow.

Kiryu was already heading for the door. "To keep someone from closing everything up again. We have a few minutes before everything comes online again and somebody starts putting everything back in order. We have to be gone by then."

"Got it."

They sprinted for the exit. There wasn't a lot of light, but there was just enough that they could see each other as dim gray shapes. They bumped into other people who couldn't see them, recovered themselves, kept running. At last, they found a door with light behind it, and they burst through it into the open air. Kiryu gave a yelp as the sudden bright light hit his eyes.

"Run and keep running!" said Crow, grabbing him by the wrist and hauling him along.

"I can't see!"

"Worry about that later!"

With Crow's guidance, Kiryu made it across the yard and to the gate. It was standing a little ajar, but only because a group of three guards were hurriedly trying to shut it. It was a large gate, and not easy to move. Their feet left furrows in the turf as they tried to force the doors to close.

"Hey, wait up!" said Crow.

They stopped pushing to look up and see two prisoners pelting towards them as if their lives depended on it, which was more or less the case.

"Hey, you two! You can't go through here!" one of them shouted. "Stop, or we'll shoot!"

That at least gave Crow a moment of pause, but Kiryu kept right on running anyway, plainly unconcerned whether he was shot or not. The guards made good their word and whipped out their pistols, firing several rounds at him. The first few shots missed him, but one bolt struck him, sending a potent jolt of energy through him. He doubled up, screaming, and guards converged on him, grabbing him from all sides.

"Oh, no you don't!"

Crow dove more or less on top of them, battering at them in a blind fury. The guards, with their hands currently occupied with holding Kiryu down, were a split-second too slow to respond to this unexpected attack. In that moment of distraction, Kiryu wrenched himself free and managed to grab one of the energy guns, which he began firing at random. Crow yelped as a beam shot past his ear. Kiryu said something that might have been "Sorry!" but in the heat of the moment, it was hard to be sure. The attack had the desired effect, anyway. The guards were backing away in a hurry - two on their own feet, and one, who had taken a direct hit, unconscious and being dragged. Crow hoped the man was simply unconscious, anyway, but this was no time to worry about it. He and Kiryu made a break for the gate, with Crow running ahead and Kiryu firing shots back over his shoulder. The gate was only open a crack by then, but Kiryu and Crow were slender young men, and they were able to worm their way through the gate and out into the world.

They didn't stop to enjoy it. There was still a lot of open space around the prison grounds that they needed to get past. Behind them, they could hear sirens - the electricity had come on again, and with it, all the security devices. Answering sirens came from elsewhere. The rest of Security was on its way over to start putting things back in order again, and Crow didn't want to be anywhere near when they arrived. He dragged Kiryu to the back of a building, hiding behind a stack of shipping pallets and wooden crates. Kiryu was breathing heavily, his face flushed unhealthily. He had spent far too long being cooped up inside a small cell.

"I'm okay," he said. "I just... need to catch my breath."

"It'll be all right," said Crow. "Just rest a minute. We're safe here."

Well, that was doubtful. The two of them were both marked, which meant that Security could find them at any time. Petty thievery was one thing, but breaking out of Neo Domino Prison was something else again, not to mention starting a riot and beating the daylights out of the warden. And then there was the matter of the guard Kiryu had shot... if he died, there was no end to the trouble the two of them were now in.

_And we can't get back to Satellite._

He had never considered having that problem before. It had always been more or less a given that as soon as he got out of jail, he would go back home. There were ways to get in from this side, but most of them involved bribing a guard to look the other way. People did it from time to time, trading with the islanders for things they couldn't get from the mainland's stores, or just to find people it was all right to beat up on without worrying what Security would do to you. Crow doubted he could do anything of the sort, though.

_We have to find a place to hide... but where?_

Kiryu, meanwhile, had recovered himself somewhat. He was investigating his new weapon with a look of great interest.

"I always wanted one of these," he said. "I wonder how you charge it?"

"You'd better get rid of it," said Crow. "We're in enough trouble as it is without people saying you're armed and dangerous, too."

"I need it," said Kiryu. "For protection. Those people hurt me, Crow. I'm never letting them hurt me again. Never."

"Okay, then," said Crow. He shifted uneasily. He didn't like the way Kiryu was looking at the gun as though it were a long-lost love. "So, what do we do now?"

"I want to go back to Satellite," said Kiryu. "I want to see Yusei again."

"That might be tricky," Crow warned him.

"You'll find a way," said Kiryu. "You got me out of jail. You saved me. Getting back onto Satellite should be easy, compared to that."

Crow started to say something, and then gave up. It was plain that Kiryu wasn't going to listen.

_I'm beginning to remember why I left him in the first place,_ Crow thought. Then he shook himself. That was no way to think. Right now, he had more important things to worry about.

"We need to find a better place to hide," he said. "Tell you what - I'll scout around and see if I can find us somewhere to hole up. You stay here and rest, and I'll be right back, okay?"

"All right," said Kiryu. "Come back soon."

For a moment, he looked so pathetic that it was easy to forget that he was holding a lethal weapon.

"I'll do what I can," Crow promised.

He hurried off, glad for the excuse to get away and have some time to himself to think.

_What have I gotten myself into?_

**To Be Continued...**


	9. They Make Alliances

**They Make Alliances**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Ruka woke up early with the sun slanting across her bed. She yawned and took a long stretch. On the other side of the room, her brother, his own bed still in shadow, was still sound asleep, his mouth slightly open. Ruka got up and poked his side.

"Are you going to wake up?" she asked.

"I set two facedowns and end my turn," Rua mumbled.

Ruka sighed. "I guess not."

She considered a moment. It was too late to go back to sleep now that she was properly awake. She gave up and got dressed, then went into the kitchen to make a breakfast of toast and jelly. When she was done, she wandered back into her room to find that Rua was still exactly where she had left him. She stared at him a moment.

"I'm going outside to play," she said. "If you want to come, you had better wake up."

Rua stirred slightly, turned onto his side, and continued to sleep. Ruka shook her head. How was it that sometimes her brother appeared to have enough energy to put the Momentum to shame, and then could turn around and act as though he hadn't slept in a week. And of course he _would_ decide he had no strength left to move when she was wide awake and ready to do something. She didn't want to go without him, but...

A small cooing sound caught her attention, and she glanced up to see the misty shape of her spirit partner hovering next to her. When she was younger, she had innocently told the adults around her that she was playing with a spirit, and people smiled and murmured about a child's imagination, or else told her to stop making up stories. Only her brother was willing to allow that she saw what she said she saw. But no matter what anyone else believed, Ruka knew she wasn't seeing things. She smiled.

"Hi, Kuribon! Do you want to go out today?"

"Kuri!" she agreed.

"Okay! We'll just leave sleepyhead here by himself."

She cast one last glance at her snoozing brother before turning away. The idea of going out alone wasn't one she often entertained these days, but she reasoned that she and Rua didn't have to be glued to each other _all_ the time.

_Maybe this will teach him a lesson,_ she thought.

She tore a page out of her sketchbook and wrote a quick note, telling Rua where she was going, just in case he decided to wake up any time that day. Then she tossed a few things into her backpack and started out.

It was a good time to be walking. It was still early enough that there weren't very many people out and about, so she had the sidewalks more or less to herself. Only the occasional passing car or morning jogger was there to remind her that she was in a city full of people. There was a haze in the air that suggested it was going to be swelteringly hot later in the day, but for now, the temperature was mild and pleasant.

_I think I'll go to the park,_ she decided. It was in easy walking distance, and Ruka preferred the quiet of the park to the crowds in the shopping centers. She didn't like too many people crowding her; it left her feeling overheated and oddly blurred, as if she was losing herself amid all the other people. Definitely better to sit in the park.

As early as it was, there were very few other people there with her. Ruka enjoyed the sensation of having the whole place to herself. It reminded her vaguely of something she couldn't quite remember. Whatever it was, it made her feel at home, and she laughed and broke into a run across the grass, just for the fun of it. Kuribon bounced after her, chattering happily. They played tag among the trees, careless for once of whether or not someone saw Ruka chasing an invisible playmate. As it was, they were free to romp to their hearts' content.

At least, that was what Ruka thought. She darted around the trunk of a particularly large tree, playfully attempting to hide from her partner, when she noticed something odd. There was a heap of ashes nearby, as if someone had decided to set one of the shrubs on fire. She knelt next to it for a moment, puzzled by it. It was odd that just this one bush should have burned to such a fine ash, when nothing around it appeared to be damaged. She wondered what could do such a thing.

She was still mulling over this, when she heard the sound of Kuribon's voice chattering in her ear. It wasn't the usual, "There you are, I found you!" sort of chatter. There was a certain urgency to it, and made Ruka look around. Satisfied that she had her attention, Kuribon floated further ahead, and Ruka chased after her. Hidden among some trees and shrubbery was a small glade with a stone bench in it, and sitting on the bench was a girl. She looked about sixteen or seventeen, with deep red hair and large, sad eyes. Ruka thought she was very pretty, but those eyes seemed haunted, strangely empty.

"Hello?" said Ruka softly. "Are you okay?"

The girl looked up at her.

"You have a friend," she said.

It wasn't what Ruka had been expecting her to say, and it took her a moment to realize the implications of it.

"You can... see her?" she asked.

"Not exactly," said the girl. "But I sense a presence." She seemed to consider a moment, and her distant expression warmed a fraction. She gestured at the empty space on the bench next to her. "Come tell me about her."

Ruka exchanged glances with Kuribon. The monster flicked her tail and ruffled her fur a little in what seemed to be her version of a shrug. She didn't seem particularly enthused about this new person, but didn't see anything wrong with her, either. Deciding that anyone who was all right by Kuribon was all right by her, Ruka went to sit beside the red-haired girl.

"What's your name?" the girl asked her.

"My name's Ruka. What's yours?"

"Izayoi Aki," the girl replied. She gave Ruka an appraising look. "Tell me... do you think you could summon your friend, so I could have a better look at her?"

"Summon?" Ruka repeated. "I don't have my Duel Disk with me..."

"I don't mean with your Disk. I mean with your mind," Aki replied.

"I'm sorry... I don't know what you mean."

"Never mind, then. I'll show you later," said Aki. "Tell me how you met her."

"Well..." Ruka frowned, thinking hard. A part of her felt like she had always known Kuribon. It was hard to remember a time when they hadn't been together. "I met her when I was really small... When I was about three years old, I used a different deck. I was good enough to be in tournaments with adults - everyone said I was a prodigy. Then one day, in the middle of a tournament, I passed out. I slept for a long time. Then I woke up, and I could hear spirits."

"I see," said Aki thoughtfully. "And you can't remember anything from when you slept? No... dreams?"

Ruka shook her head. Aki looked mildly disappointed.

"It could be important," she said. "But there may be some way to help you remember. I have friends who would know better than me how to teach you... Where is your family?"

"My brother is sleeping," said Ruka automatically, before it dawned on her that this was probably not what her new friend had in mind. "Oh, my mother and father - they work a lot. They're hardly ever home."

"I see. I'm not surprised. My father was the same way," said Aki. Her expression darkened, and Ruka felt a stirring in the air, something almost electric, that raised the hairs on the back of her arms. Ruka shied away, and Aki glanced at her in surprise. The strange feeling faded.

"Sorry," said Aki, looking slightly embarrassed.

"What was that?" asked Ruka.

"It happens sometimes, when I am angry," Aki admitted. "I'm learning to control it, but... it is difficult."

"You can do _magic_?"

Aki almost smiled. "You could call it that, yes."

Ruka looked at her admiringly. "That must be really cool!"

"You might be able to learn," said Aki.

"You think?" asked Ruka, interested.

"It is possible," Aki replied. "If you can see spirits, you probably have some untapped talent. You won't be able to do much right away, but with time and some training..."

"Wow," she said. "So when you asked if I could summon Kuribon...?"

Aki considered a moment, then silently stood up and produced a card. She gave it a flourish, and it began to glow. A creature appeared, a bird with a crest of flower petals and wings of leaves. Ruka gave a gasp of delight, and then began to applaud. Aki looked rather pleased by the reaction. She reached out to stroke the bird's beak.

"I have one of those in my deck too," said Ruka proudly.

Aki smiled. "You have good taste in monsters."

She gave her monster a final pat before letting it disappear. Ruka continued to gaze at the older girl with rapt admiration.

"You can teach me to do that?"

"No," said Aki, "but I know someone who might. Have you heard of the Arcadia Movement?"

Ruka frowned. "Maybe a little? In the news or something?"

"It is a refuge for psychic duelists," said Aki. "People like me. Possibly also people like you. You will find a family there - people who will understand if you are a bit different. They won't see anything strange about you talking to something other people can't see. They won't leave you alone like your parents do."

"What about my brother?" asked Ruka.

"I don't know. Does he see things the way you do?"

"I think he's pretty ordinary," Ruka admitted.

"It would be best if you didn't bring him with you, then," said Aki. "Come visit us someday. Look for the tall building on Phoenix Avenue - it's called the Arcadia Building. Ask anyone there where to find me - they'll all know my name."

"Are you famous?" asked Ruka.

Aki smiled a little, amused. "Not really. I'm my teacher's best student, that's all. Just remember to come to me first. My teacher... he is a very kind man, but he has high standards, and he might be a bit too strict for you to deal with right away. I can help you train, though. He will be very pleased to have a new addition to our family, once he sees how well you can do."

"Do you think I'll be good enough?" Ruka asked.

"I see no reason why not."

"I might come visit one day, then."

"You can come now, if you would like. I'll show you the way."

Ruka shook her head. "I don't think I had better. My brother will miss me if I just disappear."

"Does he have a way to get in contact with you?" Aki asked.

"Well, I do have a phone..."

"Can't he entertain himself for a while?"

"I don't know," said Ruka. "He did say something about wanting to go visit someone..."

"Then there is your answer," said Aki. "He cannot come with you. Let him visit his friend, and you will visit me, and then we will all have what we want."

Ruka wavered. On the one hand, she hated to just wander off somewhere without even telling Rua where she'd gone. On the other hand, she _did_ have her cell phone with her, so he could call her whenever he liked, and he _had_ wanted to visit the woman he'd met yesterday, which she hadn't particularly wanted to do. And it _would_ be nice if she could learn how to summon Kuribon into the real world. It would be so much more fun if they could really play together and curl up to sleep next to each other at night. It felt like something she needed to learn more about.

"Will it take long?" she asked.

Aki shrugged. "As long as you like. You should proceed at your own pace. That's what Divine always tells me."

"Well... I guess it wouldn't hurt to visit for just a little while..."

"Good," said Aki. She got to her feet and offered Ruka her hand. Ruka took it, and followed her out of the park.

Meanwhile, Rua was dreaming. He was in a championship duel - a riding duel, with a D-Wheel of his very own. The crowd cheered for him as he drew a card with a dramatic flourish, and...

...fell out of bed with a bump. He flailed, trying to work out how he could suddenly be tangled up in a heap of blankets instead of cruising down a racetrack, and finally managed to figure out which way was up and how he had to move to get out. He squirmed his way to freedom and attempted to get his pajamas on straight again.

"Ruka?" he called. "Hey, Ruka, where are you?"

A quick search of their room revealed no sign of his sister, but he did find a note written in pink ink, explaining that Ruka had gone out to play and would be back later. Rua gave an exaggerated groan.

"She went without me!" he complained to the world in general.

The empty room didn't give him much sympathy. With a gusty sigh, he shuffled off to see if Ruka had left him anything for breakfast. As he did so, he noticed his clothes from yesterday, tossed carelessly at the foot of his bed. Ruka always put hers in the hamper at the end of the day, but Rua reasoned that the cleaning lady would deal with it no matter where he put it. He looked at his crumpled shorts and remembered the business card Misty had given him. He rummaged through his pockets and retrieved it. It was slightly crumpled now, but still easy to read. He twirled it through his fingers a moment, considering.

"Huh," he said. "I wonder if I should..."

He looked at the clock. He had overslept; it was past time for breakfast and well on its way to being lunchtime. It would _be_ lunchtime, by the time he reached the other side of town. If he went looking for Ruka, there was no telling how long she would take to find, and then she would probably want to get lunch somewhere, if she hadn't already... it could take hours to get everything sorted out. And he had promised to visit Misty. It wouldn't be right to make her wait all day.

But it didn't seem right to leave without Ruka either. He couldn't do it. He thought a moment, and then went to find his cell phone. He punched the button that auto-dialed her number and waited impatiently as it rang.

"Hello?" came Ruka's voice at last. She sounded distant, as though half-asleep.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Rua asked. "Were you taking a nap?"

"I'm meditating," she replied.

"You're _what?_"

"Meditating," Ruka repeated. "You wouldn't wake up, so I went to the park without you, and I made a new friend. Her name is Aki. She's kind of serious but she's still nice. She invited me to visit her, and she's teaching me to do things."

"What _kind_ of things?" Rua asked suspiciously.

"Meditating!" said Ruka. "She's teaching me things I can do so I won't get so tired when I duel."

"Oh," said Rua.

"I don't know how long I'm going to be here," she went on. "Are you okay by yourself for a while?"

He heard the note of longing in her voice. She obviously wanted to stay right where she was. That would have been all right, except that it was equally plain that he wasn't invited. That stung; she had never pushed him away like that before.

"I'll be fine," he said, in a tone he hoped conveyed the fact that he would, in fact, be perishing of loneliness. "Will you be home for dinner?"

"I think so," Ruka replied. "Let's meet somewhere. How about that pizza place at the mall you like?"

Rua perked up a little. "Okay! We haven't been there in forever!"

"We were there on Monday," said Ruka with a giggle.

"That's long enough!"

Feeling a bit better, he said goodbye to his sister. At least he wasn't being _completely_ abandoned. And meditation had always sounded like it involved a lot of sitting still. He had never been much good at that sort of thing. Maybe it was better to let Ruka and her new friend do their girl stuff together.

And in the meantime, he had an appointment.

He caught a bus across town, to the site of one of the city's swankiest apartment buildings. He goggled at the gleaming foyer, standing and staring until someone came up behind him and pushed him out of the way. He staggered a little, managed to get his feet properly under him, and began walking slowly towards the front desk. It felt like he had to walk a mile just to get across the marble floor. The receptionist glared down at him from her lofty vantage point.

"Are you lost?" she asked.

Rua shook his head. "I'm here to visit. I have a card." He held up Misty's business card as if it would shield him from the receptionist's frosty gaze.

The receptionist was unimpressed. "Is she expecting you? Do you have an appointment?"

"Well, kind of. I mean, she invited me yesterday..."

"I see," said the receptionist, pursing her lips.

"You can call her," said Rua. "Tell her it's the boy who fell off the building. She'll remember me!"

She did not look particularly convinced by this promise, but she picked up her phone and punched a few numbers.

"Front desk calling. There's a young man here to... Yes. Yes, he is...Mm-hm. Of course. Sorry to have disturbed you." She hung up the phone and looked down at Rua as though he were something entirely new and strange, perhaps a small space alien come down for a visit, and she wasn't quite sure whether to welcome him or send for Security. "Miss Lola says you are free to visit her. Just take that elevator over there."

"Thanks!" said Rua, and scurried away before she could change her mind.

Once safely ensconced inside the elevator, Rua jumped up to smack the button of the floor he wanted, and waited impatiently to reach his destination. Once he'd arrived, he scampered down the hallway, attracting glares from the people he passed. He slowed a little once he reached the door numbers that were close to the one he was looking for. At last, he stopped in front of Misty's door, took a deep breath, and knocked.

His hand had barely touched the door when it was opened, and Misty smiled down at him.

"There you are," she said. "You're just in time - I was about to start lunch. Please, come inside."

Rua stepped into a room that was even more lavish than the grand foyer that had so intimidated him. While this place was smaller, it was more lavishly furnished, with lush carpets and highly polished furniture. Rua didn't know anything about antiques, but he knew "expensive" when he saw it. Everything was spotlessly clean, the wooden surfaces of the furniture gleaming like mirrors, the carpets showing not so much as a speck of lint. It was, in short, the dwelling-place of someone who resided there, but didn't _live_ there. Nothing ever happened that would mar the perfection of this room. No pets, no children, no friends dropping in for visits. Just Misty, alone. Rua tread carefully across the carpet, afraid to breathe lest he break something.

"Sit down and make yourself comfortable," she said, indicating a sofa. "I'll fetch us something to eat. It will be more comfortable here than in the dining room, don't you think?"

Rua cast a glance through an open door, taking in a dark room with a long table and a number of hard-looking wooden chairs.

"In here is good," he agreed.

Misty disappeared for a little while, and Rua could hear her rattling around in the kitchen. He sat down on the sofa she'd indicated and found it wonderfully springy. He bounced up and down a few times, trying to see how high he could go. After a few tries, he forgot himself enough to kick off his sneakers and climb up so he could jump. If he put enough effort into it, he discovered that he could nearly touch the dangling crystals on the chandelier. He stretched upwards, trying to get just a little higher...

It was at about that moment that Misty walked in, carrying a tray. Rua stared at her, missed his footing, and fell over backwards onto the cushions. He scrambled to push himself upright.

"I'm sorry!" he said. "I just got carried away, and..."

Misty laughed. "I'm not upset with you. If I were younger, I would want to jump on that sofa myself."

Rua grinned at her. He watched with great interest as she set down the tray she was carrying. It proved to contain a number of sandwiches, a bowl of potato chips, and a platter of artfully arranged fruits, vegetables, crackers, and cheese. There was also a pitcher of lemonade. Rua's stomach growled, reminding him that he had not eaten yet today.

"That looks good!" he said.

"Help yourself," said Misty.

Rua wasted no time in scooping up a sandwich in each hand and taking a bite out of both of them in quick succession. Misty seated herself in a chair across from him and helped herself to a celery stick.

"I notice your sister isn't here with you," she said.

Rua shook his head, swallowed, and said, "I invited her, but she went somewhere else."

An odd expression flickered across Misty's face, a smile of grim satisfaction. It vanished so quickly that Rua thought he must have imagined it.

"What a pity," she said. "Did she say where she went?"

"To visit a new friend," said Rua. "Something about meditation."

"An interesting hobby for a young girl," said Misty, pouring herself a glass of lemonade.

"Ruka's kind of like that," said Rua. "She can see spirits and things. That's what she says, anyway. _I_ can't see them."

"It is a knack some people have," Misty replied. "It is good for her to get proper training. Assuming this friend of hers can really teach her. I hope this person is qualified."

"No idea," said Rua, gulping down a sandwich and reaching for another. "She only said her name was Aki something."

"Really, now," Misty murmured.

Something in her tone made Rua look up. "You know her?"

"The name rings a bell," said Misty. "I'll think about it. Perhaps it's nothing. Next time, I hope you can bring your sister with you. Her friend too, if you'd like. I'm sure I'd love to meet both of them."

"I'll tell her," Rua promised. "You really want to meet her friend? I haven't even met her yet."

"I'm sure any friend of your family is a good person," said Misty. "Besides, I'm interested in meditation and things of that nature, too. We might have something in common. Don't eat too quickly, now. There's cake for dessert."

"Okay," he said obediently. He started piling slices of cheese onto a cracker. "What kind of cake?"

"Double chocolate," said Misty.

"Awesome!"

Misty smiled. "I thought you might approve."

She reached out to rest a hand on his. He was surprised how cool her touch was on such a warm day... but then, he reasoned, she _had_ been holding a glass of cold lemonade.

"I'm so glad you came here today," she said. "I feel we are going to be very good friends."

* * *

Carly was asleep. She had, Jack though, every right to be. She had stayed up most of the night, not only reporting, but setting up her new blog and drumming up readers for it. She had managed to stay awake long enough to make breakfast, but she had crashed shortly afterwards. Now she was lying with her head on the kitchen table, Saiga's laptop still flashing its screen saver next to her. Her mouth was slightly open, and her glasses were askew. Jack gently plucked them from her face, folded them and set them aside.

_I ask a lot of you,_ he mused.

Jack wasn't the sort to feel guilty about anything. He may have asked a lot of Carly, but he demanded a lot of himself, too. Still, he couldn't help but be impressed that she had kept up for this long. She was a country girl, unused to the perils of the big city; Satellite should have finished her off long before she'd met him. Instead, she'd adapted, befriending the populace and carving out a place for herself. She'd saved him from stagnation. If she hadn't come along, who knew how long he would have moldered there in that decaying theater, dreaming of things he had lost the initiative to do? And now she was working herself to exhaustion for both their sakes...

_You are a strange woman,_ he thought. You wouldn't know, looking at her now, with her drooling on Saiga's kitchen table, how tough she could be when put to it. It kept surprising him, the contrast between her plain exterior and the bravery of her actions. There weren't many people who could keep him off-balance that way.

"The least you could do is turn my laptop off for me."

Jack glanced up to see that Saiga had wandered in. While Jack glared at him, Saiga strolled over to the table to power his machine down.

"You're wasting batteries," he said.

"I wasn't using it. She was," said Jack.

"She doesn't look like she's using it at the moment," said Saiga. "She looks sound asleep to me."

"Don't wake her," said Jack.

"You're awfully protective," said Saiga. "I don't get it. You're the one with the talent in this outfit."

"She has her uses."

"Right, right. The reporting thing. But you could do without that, couldn't you? You don't need her to win duels."

"I don't just want to win duels," Jack snapped. "I'm not going to be stuck in the underground. I'm not going to waste my time street dueling forever. I'm going to the top. To get to the top, I need to be famous. To be famous, I need the media on my side."

"Win enough duels and you'll attract the media anyway," said Saiga. "Take it from me - this girl is a liability. You're always going to be worrying about that marker getting noticed, or worrying that Security is going to find a way past my descrambler. And you saw what happened last night, when she ran off after that girl. Who's to say she won't do something else careless that will get you both caught?" He shook his head. "Take it from me, you're better off taking your share of the money and getting out of here. Leave the city, get away from Security's eyes, and find somewhere else to be a duelist."

There was a long silence. Saiga looked expectantly at Jack, who sat gazing off into space.

"Hm," said Jack at last. "I think I understand."

"Good," said Saiga. "Glad to know you can see sense."

"No," said Jack. "It's _you_ I understand."

Saiga's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"I've been wondering, all this time, why you've taken such an interest in us," said Jack. "Now I know. You're jealous of my bond with Carly."

Saiga laughed. "What makes you think I want your girl? You can have her."

"It's not about her," Jack retorted. "It's about _us_. Carly told me what happened between you and your old partner. You had a bond with him, but you let it break. Now you see Carly and me together, trying to succeed where you failed, and you can't stand that. You want to see us fail, because if we fail, you can reassure yourself that all bonds fail and you didn't really do anything wrong. You're trying to justify your own weakness. Well, it won't work!"

He slammed his fist on the table. Carly twitched, muttered something about being late for school, and continued sleeping.

"It won't work," Jack repeated, more quietly. "There is a tie of honor between us. I will not abandon her. Whatever happens, it will happen to the both of us. You can work with us, or stay out of our way, but don't _ever_ suggest that I leave her again."

Saiga stared at him a moment, red-faced with anger and shame.

"I ought to throw you out in the street for talking like that!" he snapped. "You had no right to go prying in my business."

"You made it my business," said Jack, "when you decided to let me hire you." He got to his feet. "I don't care about your past. You can brood over lost glories forever, for all I care. But you need to either sort out your issues or keep them away from me." He stood up. "Carly has the right idea. I'm going to rest for a while. Don't bother me."

He swept out while Saiga was still groping for words. Then, with a muffled noise of frustration, Saiga stomped back to his room.

_Why does everyone have to get into my business anyway?_ he thought, conveniently ignoring that he'd just done the same to Jack. _What I choose to do is no one's problem but mine..._

His eyes strayed to the yellowed newspaper clippings on his wall, seeking out Yuji's laughing face. He had made his own choices back then, too, and they certainly hadn't turned out very well. He touched the picture frame, feeling his anger cool and harden into a leaden sense of loss. Jack was right. No matter how much he told himself that he had accepted his choices, he still hadn't gotten over losing Yuji. He still didn't believe that Yuji would ever forgive him, even if Carly seemed to think it was an option. He had ruined Yuji's life and he doubted Yuji would ever let him get close enough to let him have a second chance at it.

And he had just made a good effort at ruining Jack and Carly's lives, too, he reflected. There was no question of Carly being able to get by very long on her own with that mark branding her, and Jack wasn't in much of a better position. They needed each other. They needed all the help they could get. If he was going to be totally honest, they needed _his_ help.

_So what are you going to do?_

He was still half-tempted to tell them he had done enough for them, and to order them out of the house, to make them stop reminding him of what he had lost. But there was another part of him that said that this was a second chance - to have friends, even if they weren't the friend he had wanted. Could he afford to pass that up? Did he even want to?

He didn't know that, yet. But it would be stupid not to find out.

"All right," he said to the picture. "I'll try it again. For you."

* * *

Goodwin pressed a hand to his forehead with an irritated hiss. A headache hovered somewhere behind his eyeballs, making it difficult to focus on his work. He had not slept well the previous night, his mind spinning with ideas. He had fixed his plans in his mind years ago, even before his desperate bid to escape Satellite, but the fact that now they were finally being put into effect, and that in perhaps as little as a few days, they might come to fruition, was enough to shake even his iron nerves slightly.

For one thing, he still wasn't sure what to make of Yusei. He had intended to take more time to observe and get to know him, but Jack's sudden disappearance had forced Goodwin's plans. He was glad, now, that he hadn't decided to make Jack his target. He had considered it at one point in time, but further consideration had made him decide against it. Jack was too strong- willed, too independent. It would have taken all of Goodwin's wiles to keep him under control and doing as he was meant to do, and there were more things that needed Goodwin's attention than one boy. Even if he had tried it, he didn't believe that Jack wouldn't have grown tired of the constant watching and simply kicked off his traces, rather as he had done so recently. No, Yusei was the better choice for this job. He was solid and dependable, asking for little except for the chance to help his friends and the opportunity to sit and work with his machines.

_The boy is so much like his father..._

Unbidden, his mind wandered back to the few glimpses he'd had of Yusei since he had come to live at the mansion. Goodwin had been avoiding him, except when it was unavoidable, but curiosity and a certain amount of caution had compelled him to at least look and see what the boy was doing with his time. As far as he could tell, most of it had been spent in the garage, tinkering with that D-Wheel. It had given Goodwin an uneasy sense of deja vu. Dr. Fudo had been exactly that way when he was involved with a project, happily puttering away for hours as he made endless refinements to his plans. But Dr. Fudo had been a cheerful man, quick with a smile and ready to laugh at anything and everything, expansive in speech and gesture. Yusei was so quiet he might as well not have been there at all. He rarely spoke unless spoken to, and rarely let any expression show on his face. Goodwin had the uneasy sense that he was seeing some kind of zombie, something that wore the professor's face but lacked his soul. That was a ridiculous way to think, of course. This was not Dr. Fudo, but his child, who had been raised in a hard place, and had been hardened as a result. This was no time to get superstitious...

That was when he saw the ghost.

It had to be a ghost. He could see through it, for one thing. For another, it bore a strong resemblance to someone he knew for a fact was dead. He scowled at it.

"You're not real," he said.

The ghostly man laughed.

"I'm probably not," he agreed. "More likely, I'm a hallucination brought on by lack of sleep and subconscious guilt. But it pays to keep an open mind."

"There is a saying about keeping one's mind so open that one's brains fall out," Goodwin snapped. "But you never thought that applied to you, did you, Doctor?"

Dr. Fudo only laughed again. "And you have always been a skeptic. Or rather, you've never trusted anything you couldn't control. And look at you now, with the whole city clutched in your hands. You've gotten greedy."

"I wouldn't expect you to understand," said Goodwin. He felt ridiculous, arguing with something that by its own admission was probably just a figment of his imagination, but the words needled him. "You wouldn't have cared if you lived in a hole in the ground, as long as you had funding for your projects."

"Now, you know that's not true," said Dr. Fudo, with an amused smile and a shake of his head. "I had my family's interests to think of as well. And the good of the world at large, of course. I had hoped to do so much more..." For a moment, he gazed off into the distance, with the wistful expression of one whose lifespan had not been long enough to contain all his dreams. Then he returned to the moment again. "And now my son is in your hands."

Goodwin did not know how to reply to that. He settled for glaring at him.

"Oh, don't look at me like that," said Dr. Fudo. "I'm glad he's here. You can give him the kind of future he deserves. If you want to."

"I am working to make a better future," said Goodwin.

"I wonder about that."

"Just be quiet," Goodwin snapped. "You've already had your chance to change the future, and you see how that turned out. This is _my_ time, and I will do as I see fit."

A dead man shouldn't have needed to sigh, but Goodwin saw the doctor's chest rise and fall, and a chill swept through the room.

"I'm trusting my boy to you," he said softly. "For the sake of whatever friendship existed between us before, please take care of him. Keep him safe."

"I can't promise that," said Goodwin.

"Keep him safe," the ghost echoed, and then his image began to waver and fragment like smoke on the wind. Goodwin gave a jolt as the tendrils blew towards him, swirling around him and chilling his skin, and then...

"Director! Director!"

Goodwin's eyes snapped open. He found himself lying with his head on his desk, looking rather undignified. He sat up and rubbed his cheek where the edge of his keyboard had dug into it.

_A dream. Of course it was..._

Someone outside his office was making a commotion. He glared at the door.

"What do you want?"

Whoever was outside took that as an invitation. The door burst open, and Mikage rushed in, looking harried.

"Why haven't you been answering your phone?" she demanded breathlessly, and then went on without waiting for his answer. "It's awful - there's been a jailbreak!"

"What?" Goodwin exclaimed. He was wide awake in an instant. "When? How?"

"Just now," she said. "It just came in over the police scanner. Somehow one of the prisoners got hold of a key card and started releasing people from their cells. Then someone got into the main control room and shut the power off. A dozen guards were injured, two seriously, and six prisoners escaped. Four of them were captured, but the last two are still at large..."

"Names?"

Mikage bowed her head and mumbled something.

Goodwin gave her a sharp look. "What was that?"

"Kiryu Kiyosuke and Crow Hogan."

There was a moment of tense silence. Goodwin rose slowly to his feet. "What did you say?"

"Er... Kiryu Kiyosuke and Crow Hogan," Mikage repeated. "There's some indication that they may have started it all."

"How could they let that happen?" he bellowed. "I should have every last one of them fired! Of all the idiocy, the unmitigated..." With a snarl of frustration, he gripped Mikage's shoulders and shook her.

"Ouch! You're hurting me!" she exclaimed, trying to twist away.

"You listen to me! Those men must be found, do you hear me? No excuses! I want them found and brought back _now_, or..."

"Hey!"

The scene froze. Ushio had arrived, holding a paper bag in one hand and staring at them both with an expression of disbelief. Goodwin released his hold on Mikage and stepped away.

"My apologies," he said. "I seem to have lost my temper. Forgive me."

Mikage murmured something to her feet.

"What I said still stands," said Goodwin. "I want every resource available put towards finding them. They must be returned with all possible speed. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir," she said.

"Fine. You are dismissed."

"Come on, Mikage," said Ushio, shepherding her out the door. "Let's go somewhere else, huh?"

She didn't resist him, so he guided her down the hall and into the first room that didn't look like anyone needed it for everything. With the hand resting on her shoulder, he could feel her trembling slightly.

"Sit down," he said. "Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

She gave him a brave smile. "I'm fine. Well, he might have bruised me a little. His grip is like iron."

Ushio scowled. If it had been anyone else, anyone in the world other than the Director, who had hurt her, he would have cornered that person someplace where there would be no witnesses and beat that person bloody. But this was the Director, the highest authority he knew, and one word from him and Ushio's life wouldn't be worth living. It was a conundrum. He put the thought in the back of his mind and resolved to wait and see if an opportunity might present itself.

"I never trusted that guy," he said. "You can't trust anyone who wears white gloves all the time."

"The Director and the Vice-Director both wear white gloves," Mikage pointed out.

"Just what I'm sayin'," said Ushio. "Anybody who wears white gloves all the time is hiding something, take it from me. Especially these political types. Can't trust 'em as far as I could throw 'em."

She almost smiled. "I imagine you could throw the Vice-Director a fair distance. He isn't very large."

Ushio smiled back, glad to see that she was recovering. He still wasn't going to forgive Goodwin so easily, but the important thing was that Mikage was happy.

"Here," he said, handing her the paper bag he'd been carrying. "This is for you."

"For me?" She looked inside the bag and fished out a chocolate covered doughnut. "Oh, that looks good... I really shouldn't, though," she added, her eyes fixed longingly on the pastry.

"Take it. You've had a hard morning. I won't tell anyone."

"Well, all right. If you insist," she said. She took a dainty nibble, cupping her other hand under her chin to catch any crumbs.

"So what was going on back there? What's he so mad about?" Ushio asked.

Her expression darkened. "There was a jailbreak this morning. A lot of people escaped, and two of them haven't been found yet. One of the two had a weapon. He shot one of the guards and hurt him badly."

"What?" Ushio yelped. "How could that happen?"

"Nobody seems to know for sure. Isn't it just awful?" she replied.

"Who was it? Anyone dangerous?"

Mikage nodded. "One of them was the man who planted that bomb in Security headquarters, Kiryu Kiyosuke. The other was a petty thief, Crow Hogan."

"Yeah, I remember those guys," Ushio rumbled. "Shouldn't I be trying to catch them?"

Mikage shook her head. "You already have a mission. Every other officer in the city is going to be looking for them, but it's only you and me looking for the escapees from Satellite. If these others haven't been found by the time we're done with this, then you can go look for them."

"Whatever you say," he said.

"Speaking of which, I had something for you," she said. "Where did I..."

She rummaged under her jacket, shifting the doughnut from hand to hand as she searched her pockets. From an inner pocket, she produced a folded sheet of paper.

"There you go. One search warrant," she said. "I was hoping I could go with you, but I think I'm going to be needed to help Director Goodwin oversee this mess."

"That's okay, Mikage," he assured her. "I'll nab these guys and be back before you know it, and then I can help you out with the other thing."

She smiled at him. "I know I can count on you. Good luck out there."

He gave her a salute and hurried off to do her bidding.

_This is gonna be all right. I'll get these scumbags thrown back where they belong, and then we'll get this jailbreak straightened out, and then maybe Mikage will have some free time..._

Thinking pleasant thoughts, he wandered out into the garage. The red D-Wheel he had admired before was still there, and he paused to run a hand over it. Someone had been working on it; there was a computer hooked to it by a tangle of wires, and there were parts and tools spread out on the floor. He wondered where the owner had gone.

"I'd love to see what this baby can do out on the road," he said as he stroked its fender.

Just then, Yusei arrived, carrying a portable hard drive in one hand and a bottle of melon soda in the other. He glanced at Ushio with mild curiosity.

"Did you need something?" he asked.

"Nah," said Ushio. "I was just... Hey, wait a minute..."

There was no way around it - that boy definitely looked familiar. He had thought so before, but Mikage had been there to distract him. Now, though, there were no distractions, and his thoughts were already full of memories of Team Satisfaction. Now it clicked.

"You! I know who you are!" Ushio blurted. "You're from Satellite!"

"I never said I wasn't."

Ushio glowered at him. "What are you doing here? This is the Director's house!"

"The Director brought me here," said Yusei. "If you want to know why, you'll have to ask him."

"You don't belong here! Go back where you came from!"

"I wish I could," said Yusei quietly.

Ushio lunged for him and seized him by his collar, hauling him up on his toes.

"Listen here, punk - _this isn't your place._ Nobody wants you tracking your Satellite scum all over our city. Nobody wants you at all. Get out."

Yusei held his gaze, his blue eyes calm.

"Trust me," he said. "I'll be leaving as soon as the Director lets me. I don't want to be here."

Ushio snarled, but the reminder that this was the Director's ward was enough to make him restrain himself - barely. He released his hold.

"Damned politicians," he muttered. "What is that guy playing at, anyway..." He fixed Yusei with a venomous look. "Fine, you're off the hook this time. But if I ever catch you where the Director isn't watching..." He trailed off and made a wringing motion with his hands, a clear promise of a broken neck.

"Understood," said Yusei calmly.

"Don't get smart with me," Ushio snapped. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm off to arrest your old buddies."

_That_ got a reaction. Yusei's expression went suddenly tense. "Jack?"

"Him first," Ushio agreed. "Then I'm off to look for the ones who broke out of prison."

"They... broke out? Kiryu? And Crow? They broke out?"

"Quick study, ain'tcha?" Ushio sneered. "They'd better enjoy their time out while they can. Once they go back in, they're never coming out alive."

With that, he got into his car and drove off, leaving Yusei silent and shaken. He stood a moment, collecting himself. Then he turned and walked slowly into the house.

He had a feeling he needed to talk to the Director.

**To Be Continued...**


	10. Ushio Makes a Panty Raid

**Ushio Makes a Panty Raid**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Carly was not sleeping easily. She still wasn't used to staying up all night and sleeping during the day, and it was taking a toll on her. She twitched, dreaming, her mind full of shadowy visions of people chasing her down interminable dark alleys. At last, her flailing grew forceful enough that she knocked her glasses off the table, making them fall to the floor with a clatter. The noise jolted her awake, and she stared nearsightedly around the kitchen, convincing herself that there was no one there but herself. She fumbled around on the floor for her glasses and shoved them back where they belonged.

_I'm safe,_ she told herself. _Nobody is going to find me here. Saiga made sure of that. He fixed the mark, right?_

But she was still not completely comfortable. She reached for her deck and drew a card. She studied it.

A moment later, she was battering on Saiga's door. He opened it and looked out at her, his expression irritated.

"What is it now?" he asked.

"Well, um..." she said. "This is going to sound silly, but... I had a bad dream. I'd really feel better if you'd just... you know, check and make sure there are no Security guys hanging around? Just in case?"

He stared at her, and for a moment she thought he was going to slam the door in her face. Then he shrugged and said, "Well, why not? It can't hurt." He followed her back to the kitchen and turned on his laptop. Carly looked on nervously as he started up a program and typed some directions into it. A map appeared on the screen, showing an outline of their neighborhood. A small flock of red dots seemed to be moving closer to their building. Saiga swore.

"I don't know what kind of radar you're plugged into," he said to Carly, "but you're right on the money. And I'll bet these guys aren't just passing through."

"What do we do? What do we do?" Carly yelped, waving her hands frantically.

"Grab your stuff and go," said Saiga. "Wake Jack up and get yourselves out of here. You can hide in the bin behind the old bookshop - there's never anything in it but paper. Well, what are you waiting for? Move! I'll hold them up!"

Carly moved. She rushed into the storeroom, where Jack was stretched out on a spare quilt that passed for his bed.

"Wake up, wake up, wake up!" she shouted, dropping to her knees to shake him.

"Mmph? What?" he said, blinking and squinting at her.

"We've got to go! Security's coming!"

Jack didn't need to be told twice. He bounded to his feet, and the two of them began a frantic scramble to gather their things and shove them into bags. Within seconds, their few personal belongings had been collected, and the two of them raced down the stairs and out the back door.

Saiga, meanwhile, went to his computer and regarded it regretfully. It had been a good machine, but he couldn't have Security figuring out what he'd been doing with it. He plugged a spare drive into it, copied as much as he could onto it, and then began erasing nearly everything from the original computer, using a program to overwrite various sections with a random string of zeroes and ones. The drive, he pocketed. He wished he had thought to tell Carly to take the laptop with her, but at the moment, the most incriminating thing it was likely to have on it was the work she'd done on her blog. They couldn't arrest him for blogging about street duels, could they?

No sooner had he finished then there was a knock on the door, the authoritative pounding of someone who knows that someone is home and isn't going to go away until he gets a response. Saiga forced himself to walk at an unhurried pace, both to give Carly and Jack plenty of time to escape, and to make sure it looked like he had nothing to hide. He opened his front door to find himself looking at a brawny man in a Security officer's uniform. Several more officers in less impressive uniforms stood behind him at a distance.

"Chief Officer Ushio Tetsu," said the stranger, flashing a badge. "I have a search warrant. You're accused of harboring escapees from Satellite. Are you going to let us in?"

"I'm not harboring anybody," said Saiga, "but sure, you can come in if you want. I have nothing to hide."

"I'll be the judge of that," Ushio replied.

He stepped inside and began scanning the area, his gaze seeming to take in every detail around him. Saiga watched him and tried to keep breathing normally. He'd been skirting around the edges of the law for a while now, and if this officer found something...

"What's all this?" Ushio demanded, waving a hand to indicate all the mess.

"My workshop," said Saiga. "I fix computers for a living."

"So all these aren't yours?"

"Most of them are. For spare parts, you know."

"What's upstairs?"

"Bedroom. Bath. Kitchen. Couple of storerooms."

"Mind if I take a look?" asked Ushio, already moving towards the stairs.

"Knock yourself out," said Saiga.

He followed Ushio up the stairs and into the kitchen. Ushio studied the laptop for a moment, but apparently he didn't know enough about computers to even start trying to work out if it had been used for something illegal or not. He stared much longer at the main computer, which was still sitting and humming to itself.

"What's this for?" Ushio asked.

"Just something I'm working on," said Saiga. "It had a virus infestation, so I've been trying to wipe it clean and start over."

"Huh," said Ushio. "Wiping it clean, huh?"

"Only way to get rid of them," said Saiga, nodding seriously.

"Mind if my men take it in for a closer look?"

"Be my guest," said Saiga. Inside, he felt a pang. It had been such a nice computer. Now he'd probably never see it again.

Ushio continued his search. He inspected Saiga's bedroom, but Saiga paid little attention to that; Jack and Carly rarely went into his room, so there would be no sign of them there. The bathroom was a trickier proposition, since there were so many opportunities to forget small personal items there, but Ushio found nothing incriminating there either. He moved on to the storerooms and inspected the heaps of cardboard boxes stacked up there.

"What's all this?" he asked.

"Just some personal belongings. Things I never unpacked," said Saiga. "What can I say? I'm not much of a housekeeper."

"Hmm..."

Ushio began an inspection of the room, peering in and around the boxes. After a moment, Saiga let himself relax a little. There didn't seem to be anything out of place, and anything Ushio did find, it would be easy enough to say it was some stray item of his that had been tossed in a box and forgotten.

"Aha!" said Ushio, grinning with victory. "What have we got here?"

He took a pen from his pocket and fished around behind a box, producing a pair of what were obviously women's panties. They were purple, with a little pink bow in front. Saiga tried not to let his reaction show. Ushio's eyes glittered maliciously as he dangled them in front of him.

"Going to tell me these are yours?" he said.

Saiga forced himself to laugh. "Hey, I'm a bachelor. I'm allowed to have a visitor once in a while, know what I mean? Come on, don't tell me you've never had a girl lose something at your place."

For some reason, this seemed to irritate Ushio. He scowled.

"You keep my personal life out of this," he snapped. He fished a plastic bag out of a pocket and started fumbling it open. "I'm taking this as evidence."

Saiga frowned slightly. He was contemplating possibilities regarding DNA.

"Evidence of what?" he said. "There's no one here but me. Unless you think I'm harboring a fugitive in my fridge or under the sink..."

There was nothing Ushio could say to that, since he'd seen the whole building and it was obviously empty.

"Fine," he said. He did not sound at all pleased. "You're off the hook... for now. But don't try anything funny. We'll be watching you."

"Just try not to watch next time I bring a girl home. I'd like some privacy once in a while."

"Ha ha. Funny guy," said Ushio. "That mouth is going to get you in trouble one of these days."

He stomped off, muttering under his breath. The officer was clearly not happy about not finding anything, but that was hardly Saiga's problem. He waited until he was sure that Ushio and his men had gone elsewhere. Then he hurriedly gathered up some of his own personal belongings and his laptop, throwing them into an empty cardboard box. He taped it shut and carried it downstairs, securing it to the back of his D-Wheel. He had a feeling he wasn't going to be coming back to this building anytime soon. He took one last look around before speeding off towards the bookshop.

He found Jack and Carly where he'd expected they would be, huddled in a garbage bin full of old books and scrap paper. Saiga peered down at them.

"Come on out. The coast is clear," he said.

Jack boosted Carly out of the bin before climbing out himself.

"What happened?" he asked.

"The place got searched," said Saiga. "They found some of her things behind a box, and that's probably enough to prove she was there."

Carly blushed. "I thought I got everything!"

"Well, your underwear now belongs to the Bureau of Public Security," said Saiga, "and that means we're all in deep trouble."

"Just great," Jack muttered. "We'll have to find somewhere else to live now..."

Carly looked worried. "Where can we go?"

Saiga frowned. He hadn't wanted it to come to this - he had, in fact, been deeply afraid that it would, but now it seemed inevitable.

"I know where we might get help," he said slowly. "Maybe. I'm not sure. Probably not. But it's the only thing I can think of to try."

"If that's our only choice," said Jack, shrugging philosophically. "Where is this?"

"Do you know the big estate on Orion Road?" asked Saiga. "I'm going to head over there. I know the guy who owns the place. There's a chance I can talk him into giving us a hand. Like I said, it's not likely, but I'll give it my best shot. Meet me there, all right?"

"And what if he isn't willing to help?" asked Jack.

"Then we're out of luck," said Saiga. "Look, it's the best I can do on short notice."

"We're not complaining," Carly assured him hastily. "You go. We'll catch up."

Saiga looked at her, seeing the fear in her eyes. The sunlight glinted off the golden mark on her cheek, and he remembered that she'd already been through the Neo Domino prison system once. She knew better than any of them what it would be like if they were caught. The sight firmed his resolve.

"Right," he said. "See you soon, then."

He mounted his D-Wheel again and accelerated away, moving at a speed that was at odds with the heavy feeling inside him. Even knowing that the only alternative to this was probably going to jail for a long, long time...

_I really don't want to do this._

* * *

It was a nice house. Perhaps not the best on the block, surrounded as it was by the pricey manors of the upper-crust, but what it lacked in size, it made up in its spacious grounds. There was a tall wrought iron fence around the property, and though Saiga couldn't see it at the moment, he knew there was a racetrack behind the house, a fact that was borne out by a small sign next to the front gate advertising coaching in dueling and D-Wheeling. The estate belonged to a man who had once been a well-known duelist, and had invested his winnings wisely upon retirement. He was regarded as a good teacher, but was otherwise something of a loner who rarely ventured out. Saiga regarded the gates and wished he had another option.

_Just do it and get it over with,_ he told himself. _Do you want to find out what Jack is going to say if he catches you standing here like a coward?_

The thought of catching a tongue-lashing from Jack was enough to make him reach out to press the buzzer. There was a pause and then a hum, and a voice emerged from the speaker.

"Hello? Someone there?" the voice asked. It was a man's voice, youthful, sounding more like a careless teenager than a successful duelist and teacher.

"Yes," Saiga replied, his mouth dry. "Mr. Nakamura? Do you mind if I come in? I'd like to speak to you for a moment."

"All righty," said the man. There was a click, and the gate swung inward. "Come on in - the door is open. I'll be down in a minute."

_He didn't recognize me,_ Saiga thought, as he passed through the gates. Had he been forgotten, he wondered, or was it only that the intercom had distorted his voice too much? He would have preferred to be recognized right away. Being turned away at the gate would have been easier than having to deal with the matter face to face.

However, his feet had already been set in motion, so without even thinking about it, he followed them to the front door. He tried the handle and discovered that it was unlocked, so he let himself in. He found himself standing in a modest foyer, with a staircase spiraling off to one side and a few doors opening in various directions. There was no one in sight. Saiga stood there, fighting the urge to pretend he'd been waylaid on the front walk and never made it inside. He wiped his sweating palms on his pants, but it didn't help much.

At last, a door opened, and a man walked slowly into view. He appeared young, probably not out of his twenties, but he leaned on a cane as he walked, with one leg held stiffly at an odd angle. He had a mop of red-blond hair that partially concealed his face, but couldn't completely cover the shiny scars of old burns on his cheeks and chin. He looked as though he'd been working in a garage recently - he wore a pair of threadbare jeans and a grease-stained T-shirt, and his hands were grimy with machine oil.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. I was working on..." he began, and then stopped as he caught sight of Saiga.

"Hey, Yuji," said Saiga, offering him a weak grin. "Long time no see."

"Saiga..."

Yuji walked over to him as if in a trance until they were face to face. Then he suddenly dropped his cane to fling his arms around Saiga to catch him in a powerful bear hug.

"I knew you'd come back!" he exclaimed. "I just knew it!"

For a moment, Saiga was too stunned to do anything. Then, slowly, he put his arms around his old friend and returned the embrace.

"Good to see you too, pal," he said.

Yuji finally released him, which was just as well, because he was starting to cut off Saiga's air supply. He stood back to look at him, beaming.

"How have you been doing?" he said. "What are you doing here? It's been forever since I heard from you. Why didn't you ever call me? I was worried about you! Do you have time for a drink or something? What have you been up to all this time? I thought you were going to go pro. Are you..."

"Easy, easy!" said Saiga, laughing in spite of himself. He had almost forgotten how Yuji could get, when he was excited about something. "I'll tell you everything, I promise, but first I... I really need your help."

Yuji gave him a concerned look, and Saiga found himself wishing he could sink into the floor. All this time, Yuji had been waiting for him, wishing he would come back, and now Saiga was telling him that he'd only come because he wanted something out of him. Yuji, he thought, must be thinking that Saiga was a first-class heel.

"What's wrong?" Yuji asked.

"Well, it's like this," Saiga began, and began explaining, as quickly as he could, how he'd fallen in with a couple of escapees from Satellite and gotten himself in trouble with the law. Yuji listened, wide-eyed.

"So Security is looking for you? Wow," said Yuji. He sounded more impressed than anything. "You're lucky you made it here in one piece. Security is all over the place today. I heard on the news that someone escaped from Neo Domino jail. Every cop in the city is out looking for them."

"Good. Maybe that will distract them from us," said Saiga. "But we really need a place to lie low for a while, until we figure out where we're going to go next."

"You're not going anywhere next," said Yuji. "You're staying right here. I just got you back - I'm not letting you run away again!"

Saiga was floored. "And the others...?"

"They can stay too. I have lots of room," said Yuji. "If they're friends of yours, they must be all right."

"They're not exactly..." Saiga began, but Yuji wasn't listening.

"I haven't had guests for a while," he was saying. "We'll say they're boarders. I've had boarding students a few times. That's what the spare rooms upstairs are for. Nobody will notice a few extra people hanging around."

Saiga cuffed his friend's shoulder lightly. "I hope you're not going to tell people I'm your student."

"Of course not," said Yuji, grinning. "You're here to help me work on the D-Wheels. I do minor repairs, still, but I don't have your computer expertise. You can even teach classes, if you want."

"Let's not get carried away," Saiga replied. "Somebody's looking for me, remember? I'm trying to keep a low profile."

"Oh, right," said Yuji, slapping his forehead. Then he grinned. "It's just so good to see you!"

"I'm glad to see you, too," said Saiga. "Listen, Yuji. About... that last duel..."

Yuji's face fell. "I know. I'm really sorry."

"You're... what?"

"It was my fault," Yuji continued. "I was the mechanic - it was my fault that coupling came loose. I should have checked it more carefully, but I wasn't paying attention and I just figured if it had held up that long..."

"Yuji..."

Yuji stared at his feet. "I know, I should have been more careful. I was just... I knew you wanted to go to the Pro Leagues, and I was upset about you leaving, and I wasn't thinking straight. I was being selfish. And when I realized how close I'd come to getting you killed, I just... I couldn't face you. I'm sorry."

"Yuji..." Saiga gripped his friend's chin gently, forcing his eyes upward. "I never blamed you - not for one minute."

"You're sure?" asked Yuji.

"The thought never crossed my mind," said Saiga. "If anyone is to blame, it's me, so don't say anything else about it. Besides," he added, stooping to retrieve the fallen cane, "you suffered more than I did."

"What, you mean this bum leg?" said Yuji. "Well, yeah, it hurts sometimes, but I get around pretty well. That's the risk you take, when you're a D-Wheeler. It could have happened to anybody. Now, why are we talking about this depressing stuff? Let's go meet your friends. They're probably wondering what's keeping you."

They hurried out to the front gate. Yuji hadn't been lying - even with his bad leg, he moved at a brisk pace with the help of his cane, so much that Saiga, expecting him to go much more slowly, had to break into a jog to catch up to him. By the time they reached the gate, they could see two figures walking up the sidewalk: a tall blond man carrying a bulging and much- abused duffel bag, and a female clutching an equally overfilled pillowcase, her face mostly hidden in the recesses of an oversized hoodie. Saiga hurried over to greet them.

"Come on in," he said. "It's all settled. We've got a place to stay as long as we want - real beds and everything, this time."

"Wow," said Carly, suitably impressed. She pushed her hood back a bit to get a better look at the house. "That's bigger than my old place at home, even."

"Who lives there?" asked Jack, regarding the house suspiciously. "How do we know we can trust them? Why are they doing us any favors?"

"We can trust this person," said Saiga. "Jack, Carly, meet Nakamura Yuji. I might have mentioned him once or twice before."

Carly brightened. "So this is Yuji! His hair is longer than in the pictures. Hi! Nice to meet you!"

"Hi!" said Yuji. "You must be Carly. Saiga was telling me about you guys. Come on, let's go inside before anyone notices us and wonders what we're doing." His face lit up suddenly. "Hey, if all of you are staying over tonight, I can order pizza!"

Saiga shook his head. "As if you couldn't without us."

"Wouldn't be the same," said Yuji.

He herded everyone inside. Carly stared at everything as if she had never seen the inside of a house before. Jack's emotions were less visible, but it was plain that this was far different from what he was used to. Yuji seemed pleased with their reactions and chattered nonstop as he ushered them up the stairs.

"Spare rooms are over here," he said. "Just pick one out you like. These are for out of town students who want a place to stay while they're studying with me, so they're kind of plain, but they have private baths and everything."

"Sounds wonderful," said Carly fervently.

Jack was less impressed. "What goes on around here? Are we likely to be seen?"

"Not likely," said Yuji, "as long as you keep out of the way when lessons are going on. I coach people in dueling and teach them how to drive D-Wheels. Lessons are usually in the morning, but nobody ever comes up here during regular classes, only when I have boarders, which right now I don't."

"You have D-Wheels here?" asked Jack, showing a spark of interest.

"Jack is a duelist," said Saiga. "He doesn't need any coaching, though. He could probably give you and me a few pointers."

"That good, huh?" asked Yuji, eyeing Jack with renewed interest.

"Best I've ever seen, and I don't say that lightly," said Saiga. "He doesn't do riding duels, though."

"Yes I do," said Jack. "I just need a D-Wheel."

"Hm," said Yuji thoughtfully. "I could probably build you one, if Saiga would help."

"I'll repay you," said Jack.

Yuji shook his head. "It's on the house. You brought Saiga back to me. I'm in your debt."

"I'm up for it, if you are," said Saiga. He smiled a little. "It might be fun - a nice change from fixing people's obsolete junk computers."

"Great!" said Yuji. "Let's get started!"

"Let me put my things down first!" said Carly.

"Oh, right," Yuji replied, blushing a little. "Guess I got carried away. Well, get your stuff put away and meet me out back at the riding circuit."

Jack nodded assent, and he and Carly went to put away their things, while Saiga and Yuji walked away in the other direction, chatting happily with each other, catching up on old times. Carly gave a little nod of satisfaction - it was nice to be right about something - and let herself into one of the spare rooms. It was, as Yuji had warned, small and rather plain, but she hardly cared. It was a real room, with actual furniture and her own private bath with a bathtub and everything. Laughing, she tossed aside the bag she carried to rush across the room and throw herself on the bed, bouncing a few times before sprawling across the mattress in blissful abandon. She hugged one of the pillows to her chest and reveled in the luxury of having a real bed to sleep in. She had missed that.

Jack came in and looked at her with a faintly mystified expression.

"What in blazes are you doing?" he demanded.

"Isn't it wonderful?" she said, rolling over so she could look at him. "We're back in civilization! No more sleeping on the floor, no more run down buildings full of spiders and leaks and rats..."

"And I might finally get a D-Wheel."

Carly made a wry face. "I guess you're not excited about your room." She sat up and gave him a coy look. "Hey, if you don't like your bed, you can share mine..."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Don't be ridiculous."

Carly just grinned. She had just been teasing him anyway... mostly. She let herself settle back on the mattress again.

"It's silly, but I finally feel safe," she said. "Just having a room of my own, I don't feel like I'm on the run anymore. It's like we've finally got a... a home."

Jack's expression softened slightly.

"It's a good place," he agreed. "Come on. Let's go see what Saiga and Yuji have for us."

He reached out a hand to help her up, and she took it, feeling a thrill run through her at his touch. She hoped she wasn't blushing; that would be embarrassing. Still, for the moment, at least, he was holding her hand. She had been too busy, recently, worrying about getting away from Security and putting various plans in motion, but maybe now that they had found a safe refuge...

Then he released his hold on her and started for the door, causing Carly to scramble to catch up with him. She fell in step alongside him, and together they made their way downstairs, and found a door leading to the back of the house. The back yard was larger than the front, but most of it was occupied with a race track, which wound in curves and loops and was strewn with assorted obstacles. Saiga and Yuji were there, laying out an arrangement of orange traffic cones on the asphalt. They were laughing about something. Jack and Carly came up to join them.

"Oh, good, you're here," said Yuji. "We're just about done."

"What are you doing?" asked Carly, eyeing the riding circuit with interest.

"Just getting some things set up," Yuji replied. He looked at Jack. "Have you ridden a D- Wheel before?"

Jack nodded. "Enough to get the feel of it."

"Great. I'll let you borrow my ride, then," said Yuji. "You can drive a few laps around the course, and I'll watch and see if I can get a feel for your style. That way I can design a D-Wheel that will be customized to suit you."

Jack was agreeable to the idea, so Yuji led him to a nearby garage. There were several nondescript practice bikes there, but one D-Wheel stood out above the others, a sleek forest- green machine with small gold wings painted on either side. Yuji ran a hand over it affectionately.

"This is Talaria," he said. "She's my pride and joy. Try not to crash, okay?"

"I don't crash," said Jack.

Jack mounted the bike and wheeled it onto the track. Yuji, Carly, and Saiga gathered around the edge, leaning on the fence to watch him.

"Don't worry about going too fast," said Yuji. "This isn't a race. Just take it at whatever speed you feel comfortable with, and concentrate on avoiding the obstacles."

Jack flashed him a savage grin, one that could only be interpreted as, "You just watch!" Then he slipped on a helmet and revved the engine. The D-Wheel came alive with a roar, and Jack rocketed forward. He wove through a series of cones at a breakneck pace, hit the breaks, did a one-hundred-eighty-degree spin, and repeated the feat in the opposite direction. From there, he barreled towards a banked curve and took it at such a sharp angle that he was nearly parallel to the ground.

"Holy cow," said Yuji. "I thought he was a beginner!"

"I guess he's not," said Saiga.

Carly beamed with pride. "Jack can do _anything_."

At the moment, he was proving her right by taking a series of ramps with practiced skill, and then making a spiral of tight corkscrew loops through a tunnel. He came out the other side and wove his way through a series of obstacles, expertly avoiding puddles and patches of gravel. He took the last few curves at blinding speed, and then, as he reached the home stretch, suddenly slammed on the breaks and went into a spin. The onlookers gasped, but he remained in control, skidding slowly to a stop directly in front of them. He calmly turned off the D-Wheel and removed his helmet.

"This one is better than the one I learned on," he said. "I'm going to tell Yusei that the next time I see him."

Carly was applauding. "Jack, you were amazing!"

"He's a natural," Yuji agreed. His eyes were shining with inspiration. "This is going to be fun! Don't worry, Jack - I'm going to build you the best D-Wheel in Neo Domino!"

Jack smiled again. "I'm counting on it."

* * *

Misty walked Rua to the front door of her apartment building. The day, from her perspective, had been a great success. Most of it had been spent playing cards with Rua and listening to him chatter about his school and his friends and his sister. He had won most of the rounds they'd played - not out of any particular skill on his part, but because she'd softened her blows for him. She wanted him to feel good about himself in her company, but even more than that, she wanted to make sure he had no idea how strong she really was. Far better that he think of her as just a pretty face, rather helpless and in need of his protection.

"Thanks for everything," he said. "I had a really good time!"

"I'm glad," she said, smiling down at him. "I hope you'll come to visit again soon."

Rua's eyes lit up. "Can I come back tomorrow? Is there more cake left?"

"Of course," said Misty, laughing. "You may come back, and I will make sure to have something nice for you."

"Next time, I'll be sure to bring Ruka," said Rua. "I know she'd like you."

"We shall see," Misty replied. "But you are both welcome to visit, any time."

Rua looked at the sky; it was beginning to turn orange with the onset of evening. Already, some of the city's street lights could be seen flickering into view.

"It's later than I thought it was," he said. "I'd better go find Ruka. She's going to be wondering where I am... Hey, do you want to come with me? We were going to go get dinner at the mall!"

Misty laughed. "Well, I'd certainly hate to miss that! But I don't think tonight is the night for it. I have other things I need to work on."

"Oh, yeah," said Rua, blushing. "I guess you can't play with me all the time, huh?"

"Don't worry about it," she said. "It was nothing that couldn't be put off a bit. Just a few things I need to put in order."

"Oh, okay," said Rua. "Anyway, I guess, I'll... huh?"

He trailed off, gazing at something further down the sidewalk. Misty turned to see a man standing on the corner, watching them both intently. He wore a long duster jacket, and his eyes were hidden by a pair of dark glasses, even though the light was already growing dim. Something about the way he was standing gave him a predatory air. He seemed to be watching them.

"Who's that guy?" asked Rua uneasily. "There's something creepy about him..."

Misty's lips tightened into a thin line. "Don't worry about him. He's just someone I know."

"A friend?" Rua inquired. He sounded doubtful about the idea, and Misty couldn't blame him. This man didn't look like anyone's friend.

"Just an acquaintance," said Misty. "A co-worker, of sorts. I expect he wants to talk business with me."

"He still looks creepy," said Rua, "but if you're sure it's okay..."

"It will be fine," Misty assured him. "Run along to your sister. This is going to be a grown-up talk."

"Okay, then. Bye!"

Rua darted off, running by the dark man and giving him a wary look as he darted past. The man merely glowered before glancing away. He strode towards Misty, radiating irritation.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" he demanded.

She raised an eyebrow. "I am following the plan."

"Like hell you are. I thought we had an agreement."

"We did," she said.

"It sure doesn't look like it."

"Calm yourself, Demak," said Misty. "I'm doing you a favor. The little girl you've been watching has become friends with Izayoi Aki. I am simply using the boy as a tool to get closer to her. He and his sister share a strong bond; she will be far weaker without him protecting her. Together, they would be more of a challenge than I think you realize. You should be thanking me for separating them."

"Hmph," said Demak. "So you say."

"I have no interest in your games," said Misty. "You can do whatever you like to the girl when I'm done."

"And if I get to her first?" Demak persisted.

"She is under the protection of the Arcadia Movement now. You won't get to her without going through Izayoi first, not to mention the rest of her comrades."

"Tough luck for you, then."

Misty scowled. "You will do your part and I will do mine. You will not interfere with me. Is that understood?"

"You don't tell me what to do," Demak snarled. "Spoiled rich girl. You've got it too easy, thinking you can have whatever you want just by demanding..."

"Don't say that," Misty snapped. "Don't ever say that."

"I'll say what I like," said Demak, "about you or anyone else. This is your warning, rich girl. Don't interfere with my plans."

"I don't intend to," she said stiffly. "Goodnight, Demak."

His only answer was a grunt. He turned on his heel and swept away, and was quickly lost in the shadows.

**To Be Continued...**


	11. The Inmates Run the Asylum

**The Inmates Run the Asylum**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Crow was hungry. Currently that was the least of his worries, but his stomach wasn't listening to his brain when he told it that. He was hungry and tired and more than a little frazzled, and wished he had a place where he could rest a moment, but even under those circumstances, his sense of humor was still functioning.

_All my life, I've wanted to get off of that island,_ he thought. _Now I'm off the island, and all I want is to go back!_

At the moment, he was hiding in a factory on the edge of town, but he knew he couldn't stay there for long. The markers were a problem. Security liked to keep up the pretense that once you had a marker, you could be located with pinpoint accuracy no matter where you went, but Crow had enough experience with being chased by the law to know that there was some leeway to work with. The markers were like the radio frequency ID strips they used in supermarkets - they only put out a signal if they were close to something that could receive it. If you stayed well away from Security scanners, or kept close to something that would swamp or block the signal, you could usually avoid being caught long enough for them to get tired of looking for you.

He had a feeling they were going to be looking for him a long time after this.

His gaze strayed over to where Kiryu was sitting. The factory they were hiding in was mostly automated, with very few real people working there, and Crow hoped that the electrical activity inside the building would be enough to confuse any signals. Now Kiryu was crouched behind a stack of empty shipping crates, playing with his new toy.

"Pchoo, pchoo, pchoo!" he exclaimed, pretending to fire off the gun at a slew of imaginary enemies. He laughed wildly. Crow sighed. The sight reminded him of watching his kids at play... except they didn't laugh like that. Crow had never heard _anyone_ laugh like that.

_They broke him,_ he thought. _Those prison bastards broke him. I wish I could make them pay..._

"Hey," he said. "Come on, wake up! Earth to Kiryu!"

Kiryu gave him an inquiring look. "What now?"

"We need a plan. Help me out, here," said Crow.

"How much can we need a plan?" asked Kiryu. He brandished the pistol. "We'll fight our way through, if we have to."

Crow sighed. "Kiryu, we can't fight our way to anywhere with just one gun. We've got all of Security coming after us now."

"Good," said Kiryu. "We'll get rid of a few of them, then."

"We can't solve everything by killing people!" Crow exclaimed. "Look. The Security entrance isn't too far from here. How about I go down there and scout around a little bit, and see if I can see something useful? Maybe I can find us something to eat, while I'm at it."

"I want to come too."

"No," said Crow. "You stay here. Just... keep an eye on things and stay out of trouble until I get back."

"I want to help," said Kiryu plaintively.

Crow repressed the urge to sigh. Yes, this was a lot like dealing with one of his kids - a particularly willful kid who didn't know how to behave. Only this child was bigger than Crow, and had a gun, and may not have been entirely clear on the difference between a real enemy and an imaginary one.

"Look," he said, as persuasively as he could, "it's dangerous to go out, so I need you to stay behind and come bail me out if I get in trouble, okay? So you stay here and hold down the fort, and be ready to come help if something comes up."

Kiryu seemed to accept that. He made a noise of assent and settled back down behind his boxes.

"You can count on me," he said, and for a moment, he almost seemed his old self. "I won't let them hurt you like they did me. You're the only friend I've got left."

Crow nodded and turned away, feeling his throat tighten.

_I have to help him. No matter how much he's changed, I can't just abandon him._ And then, _Wouldn't do much good if I did, anyway. They'd still come and get me._

At least he had some idea of what he needed to do. He knew where the passages between the mainland and the island were. The Security entrance was clearly a no-go area - he doubted he could get anywhere near it without bringing a few hundred police officers down on his head. The other passage, though, that was different. There were wide tunnels where garbage of every sort got shoved through a few times a day. People passed through there, too. There wasn't supposed to be traffic between the mainland and the island, but people did it anyway, and Security usually looked the other way as long as they didn't cause any trouble - say, by trying to smuggle someone out of Satellite or by messing with the Security warehouse. On the other hand, curious sightseers and thrill-seekers were occasionally permitted to sneak by. Crow had seen gangs of rowdies from the city who, knowing they would get in trouble for starting anything in the good part of town, would sneak over to the island to rough up a few locals for the fun of it, knowing Security wouldn't bother itself overmuch if a few of the undesirables were sporting a couple of extra bruises.

More importantly, in Crow's mind, there was also a thriving black market. People on Satellite would pay a lot more than the going rate for luxuries like chocolate and shaving cream - even the cheapest drugstore perfume could fetch a nice price in a place where nearly everything smelled of mold and rot. The people on Satellite were clever and resourceful, too, and could build all sorts of interesting contraptions out of the junk they found lying around or filched from the garbage plant. It was also true that home-brewed Satellite liquor was pretty impressive stuff. Considering how hard it was to get hold of cold, hard cash on the island, people were always happy to do a little bit of bargaining. Crow's plan, as far as it went, was to scope out a truck or a van that was headed in that direction, and either convince the driver to give them a lift, or, more likely, just burrow into a pile of junk and wait to get to the other side. Once he made it to Satellite, there were places he could hide, friends he could call on. Yusei knew how to scramble markers, for one thing, and since finding Yusei seemed to be the one clear thought in Kiryu's mind at the moment...

Moving cautiously, keeping out of sight, Crow picked his way through the back alleys and dark side streets, easing his way towards the tunnel. It was simple enough to find, even if he hadn't known more or less where it was supposed to be: garbage was collecting there, waiting to be transported, and the smell hung thickly on the air. It coated his tongue and made his eyes water, and he had to fight not to sneeze. There were a lot of people moving around. He sized up the situation for a moment before finding a convenient fire escape and clambering up the side of a building to perch on the roof. From there, he could sit and watch people coming and going at his leisure.

He realized right away that getting through the tunnel was going to be harder than he'd hoped. Security officers were snooping around, at least three that Crow could see, stopping everyone who was going in or out and questioning them at length.

_Man, if I go down there, I'll get caught for sure,_ he thought. _Unless... hm... a distraction. Some kind of distraction..._

He needed to know the lay of the land a little better. He climbed back down to ground level and began sneaking around the building, investigating possible escape routes and checking to make sure there were no other officers around. Crow grinned, beginning to feel that he was on solid ground at last. Eluding Security officers was what he did best. He wished fleetingly that he had the Black Bird with him, but he could deal with that later. For now, all he had to do was...

...figure out what was causing all the commotion up ahead. Forgetting caution, he sprinted forward towards the mouth of the tunnel and found that chaos was unfolding. The driver of a truck was now huddled behind it, shaking in terror, while the three officers stood back uncertainly, attempting to defend themselves. All four were staring at a madman wielding a gun, which he was firing off indiscriminately. In the middle of it all was Kiryu, looking as though he was having the time of his life. He didn't even seem to care who or what he was shooting at.

"Kiryu, you idiot!" Crow bellowed.

Kiryu, hearing an unexpected noise, turned and fired at it. Crow felt a searing pain on his arm and gasped, staggering to a halt as he clutched at his new burn. Kiryu, realizing what he'd just done, stared at Crow, his face going gray with horror. In that moment of distraction, Crow lunged forward and tackled him, pinning him to the ground and wrenching the gun out of his hand.

"Of all the stupid...!" he shouted.

"Crow, I..."

"All right, get 'em!"

Sensing the immediate danger had passed, two of the officers rushed forward. In the background, Crow could hear another one radioing for backup. It was definitely time to get out of here. He rolled over quickly and fired a warning shot over the shoulder of one of the officers. They backed off in a hurry, but he could see their hands straying towards their own weapons. Crow gritted his teeth; he didn't want this to turn into a showdown, and his arm was hurting him.

"Kiryu, run!" he snapped.

"I'm not leaving without you!"

"It's too late to be a damned hero!" Crow exclaimed. He fired a round of shots at the feet of the officers, forcing them backwards. "How many shots does this thing have, anyway?"

"I have no idea!" Kiryu shouted back. He scrambled to his feet and grabbed Crow by the arm - his _bad_ arm, making him hiss and nearly drop the gun - and began trying to haul him away. Crow continued shooting more or less randomly until he'd been pulled backwards out of sight, and then he turned and began running as fast as he could, which was remarkably fast. Kiryu, out of condition from too many months in a small cell, couldn't keep up with him, but Crow grabbed his wrist and forced him to follow along as best he could. They continued running, zigzagging down alleys and clambering over fences. At last, Crow admitted that there was no way Kiryu could possibly go any further. His face was becoming an unhealthy shade of red, and his breathing was loud enough that Crow suspected that Security wouldn't even need to trace his marker to find him.

"Okay, take a breather," he said, releasing his hold on Kiryu.

Kiryu dropped to the ground where he stood, leaning against the wall of a building and mopping perspiration from his face. Crow stood over him, glaring at him with a mix of concern and anger.

"What the hell do you think you were doing back there?" he demanded. "You could have gotten us both killed! I told you to stay behind!"

"You were a long time coming back," said Kiryu. "I was worried."

"You were... Couldn't you have at least maybe checked around and made sure I was okay before you started shooting up the place? I thought you knew how to plan things!"

"I'm sorry," said Kiryu, looking genuinely downcast. "I wasn't thinking... I was just worried."

Crow forced himself to calm down, reminding himself firmly that he couldn't expect Kiryu to think clearly right now. He needed help, not haranguing.

"Just don't do it again," he said. "Next time, trust me."

"I trust you," Kiryu replied. He managed to look concerned. "Your arm..."

"It's fine," said Crow. There was a burn mark across his bicep, and it stung like the blazes, but he knew it wasn't truly serious. Fortunately the gun seemed to be set merely to stun someone, and apparently Kiryu either hadn't chosen or hadn't realized how to put it on a higher setting. "I'll get over it."

"That's good," said Kiryu. "I never want to hurt you. If anything happened to you..."

"It's okay, man," Crow assured him, with more confidence than he really felt. "Come on, now. We've got to keep moving. They're going to be looking for us."

"I'm tired," Kiryu complained.

"So am I," said Crow. "We'll rest when we get somewhere safe, okay?"

"Okay," said Kiryu. He tried to pull himself to his feet, but he needed Crow's help to steady himself. The two of them set out again at a tottering pace.

_Safe,_ Crow thought wistfully. Deep down, he was beginning to wonder if he'd ever be safe again.

* * *

Night was falling. Aki sighed; she was tired already, and there was still so much more to do. She looked out the window at the darkening city, with its myriad colored lights glowing against the deep blue sky, and wondered if she could convince Divine she needed the day off. She immediately pushed that thought aside. How could she ask for time off? Divine had done so much for her - given her everything she needed or wanted - and he had not asked for anything from her until now. Steeling her resolve, she crossed the floor to her closet, taking out the black cloak and mask that she'd worn for her previous nighttime excursions. _I wonder if this is really doing any good._ The stray thought wandered through her mind, and she brushed it aside. She had been doing these nighttime raids almost as long as she had been part of the Arcadia Movement. Divine had told her that it would be good practice for her a chance to hone her skills against actual opponents, while at the same time making the presence of the Arcadia Movement felt in a way that couldnt be denied. Aki wasnt precisely sure whether what she was doing was having any more effect than frightening a few people, but she wasnt worried enough to argue about it. She had long ago realized that Divines plans tended to play out over long periods of time, with ends that only he could see. She trusted that in good time, his reasons for this would make sense, too. Besides, people deserved it.

_I should find another place to duel,_ she decided. She consulted her mental map of the city, considering her options. She hoped, a bit guiltily, that she would not run into the other girl with the mask. She had been feeling uneasy about that meeting. It was, she felt, her duty to report any potential psychic duelists she found to Divine, and let him make the decision as to whether or not they would suit his needs. She had guessed that whatever power the girl might have had was too weak to be worth trying to coax out, but what if she had been wrong? When it came to raw power, her gift exceeded Divine's, but he was better at detecting gifts in other people than she was. His perceptiveness bordered on what most people would call _real_ psychic ability - there were times when he seemed to know what other people were thinking, and she had definitely seen him react to things happening beyond what he should have been able to see and hear. Thinking of that gave Aki a feeling of unease - what if he already knew she had sent the girl away? Should she mention it now, or just assume that because he hadn't brought it up already, he didn't mind? What would happen if she brought it up now?

As if in response to that thought, there was a knock.

"Aki? Are you there?" asked Divine's cultivated voice.

"Just a minute," she said.

She hurried to open the door, and found Divine standing there with an expression of concern on his face.

"Is everything all right?" he asked. "I thought I sensed distress."

She gave him a brave smile. "I just have a lot on my mind, that's all."

"Would it help to talk about it?" asked Divine. "You know I'm always here to help."

"I know," she said. Bowing her head, she added, "I think I may have made a mistake."

Divine sat down, looking up earnestly. "Tell me."

"All right. Last night... I met a young woman. She might have had the same kind of powers we do, but they were very weak, so weak I almost couldn't sense them at all. I know I should have asked you first, but I didn't think she would be of any use to you, and I didn't want to waste your time..."

"It would have been better if you'd brought her to me," said Divine. "However, if her gift was as weak as you say it is, it probably would have been a waste of time in the end. I don't fault you for letting her pass by."

Aki heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Divine."

"Now, is that all that was bothering you?" he asked.

"There is the other girl..."

He raised an eyebrow. "Other girl?"

"A child," said Aki. "I met her this morning while I as out for a walk. She's much stronger than the other, but she's still untrained. I brought her here and gave her some lessons in meditation. I think she'll come back again."

"Good, good," said Divine. "You've done well. Next time she comes here, bring her to me. I'll take over her training."

"But..." Aki began, and stopped. "Yes. You are better qualified than I am."

"You're more than qualified to teach the basics," Divine assured her. "But your time can be better spent elsewhere. You should continue your own training, and leave the teaching to me."

"Of course," she said, bowing her head. "I didn't mean to be presumptuous."

"It's fine," he assured her. "Just don't get carried away. Now, don't you have somewhere you need to be?"

"I was just getting ready to leave," said Aki.

"Good girl," Divine replied, smiling. "You're my pride and joy, Aki. Don't ever forget it."

She felt herself blushing. "I'll do my best."

"Of course you will. You always do," he told her. "Run along, now. Go!"

Aki went, the hem of her cloak trailing behind her as she scrambled to fit the mask onto her face. She smiled as she ran. It was so reassuring to know that Divine had everything under control.

* * *

Yusei walked slowly, planning his approach. For all the Director's fine words, Yusei still didn't trust him, and he trusted him far less now that the situation had come to this dangerous turn. If Kiryu and Crow had broken out of jail, if they had hurt people, it was possible even Goodwin couldn't protect them now, but Yusei felt he had to ask anyway. That didn't make him feel any better about having the conversation.

He reached the door to Goodwin's office and paused, listening. It sounded as though the Director was having a conversation with someone, and after a moment, Yusei identified the second party as Vice-Director Jaeger. It sounded as though the two of them were arguing about something. ...see why you had to change the date, Jaeger was saying. He was going to be executed anyway. I wanted to be honest with him, said Goodwin reasonably. The truth wouldnt have done, and neither would a lie, so I changed the facts. What difference does it make? It obviously did make a difference. Do you think he would have tried to break out of prison just now if he didnt know he was about to die anyway? So I was supposed to predict that a man who by all reports has done nothing for the last two years but sit in a cell and stare at the walls was going to spontaneously figure out a way to escape from a maximum-security prison? Jaeger stammered something. Whatever it was, it didnt seem to matter, because Goodwin continued talking over him. Let me remind you, he said, that I am in charge here. It is not your place to question my decisions. Is that understood? Yusei didnt catch what Jaegers reply was, but that didnt matter. His mind was whirling. They were talking about Kiryu they had to be. Goodwin had been lying about his execution date, or close enough. Kiryu had been in no danger until Goodwin had decided to manipulate Yusei into doing his bidding, and hed changed the date to enforce his threat. The thought left him shaking with rage. How dare this man play games with Yuseis friends lives that way?

The tone of the conversation dropped a few levels, so that it became difficult to hear what was being said, but he caught a mention of "the higher-ups. You could get in trouble with them..."

Yusei wondered briefly just who those might be higher than the Director. As far as he knew, there was no other authority but Security, and Goodwin was in charge of that.

_Come to think of it, how did he end up in charge of Security, anyway? He must have been appointed by somebody, but I've never heard it discussed..._

"...seems perfectly ordinary to me," Jaeger was saying.

"Don't make judgments on things you dont understand!" Goodwin snapped, loud enough to be heard clearly. He said something else after that, but Yusei missed it; he had a feeling it amounted to "Now get out and stay out!"

A moment later, Jaeger stepped out of the office, looking rather put out. When he saw Yusei, though, his face split into a grin.

"Are you going to speak to the Director?" he asked. "I wouldn't try it, if I were you. He's in a _bad_ mood today."

"I don't have time to put it off," Yusei replied.

"Better you than me," said Jaeger. He gave Yusei a mocking bow and waved him into the room. Yusei felt an impulse to knock some respect into him, but he held it back.

_He is not the wolf. He is the carrion-bird, that sits in a tree and crows while he waits to pick the bones of whatever the wolf kills. Save your energy for the wolf._

He stepped into the office. Goodwin was sitting at his desk, staring moodily off into space, but he snapped to attention when Yusei entered the room.

"Yusei," he said. "I suppose you've heard what happened this morning."

"Ive heard," Yusei agreed.

"I suppose you're pleased," he said. "Your friends are cunning, after all. With some luck, they might even escape to freedom. If they're free, I have no control over you. That's what you want, isn't it?"

"It is," Yusei agreed. "But I still intend to hedge my bets."

Goodwin looked interested. "How so?"

"By doing what I can to help them," Yusei replied. He took a deep breath. "If I agree to help you, what will you do for them?"

"Help me," Goodwin replied, "and your friends will go free. I will call off the search for them. Even if they walk straight into the main lobby of the Security headquarters, no one will touch them."

"You promise?" asked Yusei suspiciously.

"You have my word," said Goodwin. "They can even remain in the city, if they wish. Or go back to the island, or leave the country entirely. It's all the same to me."

Yusei's eyes narrowed. "It's too easy. What are you hiding?"

"I hide nothing," Goodwin replied, but his eyes glittered as he spoke.

"Prove it," said Yusei.

Goodwin thought about it for a moment, swiveling in his leather chair. After a moment, he came to a decision, and he straightened up and tapped a button on the intercom on his desk.

"Mikage," he said, "would you come here for a moment?"

There was a murmur of assent through the machine, and a moment later, Mikage appeared. Yusei thought she looked tired, and wondered fleetingly how long she had been awake today, and whether she'd remembered to eat anything.

"Yes, sir?" she inquired.

"How is the hunt for our fugitives progressing?"

"Not well," she said, bowing her head. "They were sighted earlier today, near the garbage disposal chute. Officers tried to intercept them, and there was a shootout. We think one of them was shot during the scuffle, but they slipped away before they could be apprehended."

"I see," said Goodwin. He glanced at Yusei. "Your friends are causing a lot of trouble. It won't be long before they get themselves killed, even if they aren't captured."

Yusei said nothing. He wanted to ask, Who was shot? How badly were they hurt? Which way did they go? but he held his tongue.

"It probably won't be long now, sir," Mikage offered, apparently made uncomfortable by the silence. "Neither one of them is in good shape..."

She trailed off as Goodwin held up a hand.

"Call off the search," he said.

"What?"

"I said, call it off," Goodwin repeated. "Call all our men back and send them to whatever missions they were originally on."

"But... I can't do that..." Mikage stammered. "What will we _tell_ people?"

"Tell them the men are dead," Goodwin replied. "Tell them that the injuries sustained in the shootout were worse than they appeared. Their bodies were located and disposed of. There is no further danger to the populace."

"But... but there _is_ a danger! They're desperate criminals," Mikage protested. "With all due respect, Director, these men are armed - they could hurt someone..."

"There are larger matters at stake," said Goodwin firmly. "These two are of no great Consequence in the long term. Leave them be."

"But this morning, you said..."

"That is enough!"

Goodwin got to his feet, eyes blazing. Mikage backed away with what Yusei realized was genuine fear.

"Yes, sir," she said, bowing quickly, and all but fled the room.

Goodwin turned back to Yusei with perfect calm, as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

"Does that satisfy you?" he asked.

_The inmates are running this asylum,_ Yusei decided. Goodwin was crazy, and the Vice-Director was probably likewise insane. Mikage was sane enough, but she was thoroughly cowed by her employer, and _he_ was plainly mad. Yusei couldn't trust a word he said.

He couldn't afford to disagree with him, either. Mad or not, Goodwin had the power.

"It will do," he said.

"Excellent," said Goodwin. He seemed relieved, almost cheerful, as though that had been easier than he'd been expecting. Yusei felt a twinge of irritation. Had Goodwin really expected him to give up on his friends?

While he was thinking this, he watched Goodwin return to his desk and go rummaging through a drawer, before finally fishing out something Yusei had often seen but never needed to own: a wallet. It was a handsome thing, as such accouterments went, made of fine black leather and stamped with a subtle design of intertwining leaves on one side, and with a matching silver fastener on the other. He handed it to Yusei.

"A gift," he said, smiling like an indulgent uncle.

Yusei opened it. There were several ten-thousand yen notes inside, and an assortment of smaller change. There was also a pocket containing a credit card, a D-Wheel license, and what appeared to be some sort of Security ID. Yusei looked up quizzically.

"Things to help you in your search," said Goodwin. "You are free to go anywhere in this city - wherever you need to go to find the other card holders. Rest assured, though, you will be observed."

Yusei nodded and slipped the wallet into his back pocket.

"You're going through a lot of trouble," he said.

"I have my reasons," Goodwin replied. "You might want to hurry. I can tell my men to stop looking for your friends, but that won't necessarily save them if someone happens to stumble over them accidentally and they provoke a fight."

"I understand," said Yusei grimly. "Don't worry. I'll find them - all of them."

He left the room with head held high, and somewhat ruined the effect of his exit by walking directly into Ushio. They glared at each other.

"Where's Mikage?" Ushio demanded. "Someone said she was here."

"You just missed her," said Yusei. "Look somewhere else."

"Hmph. I don't take orders from you, even if you _are_ the Director's pet," Ushio muttered.

Unfortunately for him, picking a fight with anyone in the Director's office, pet or not, was probably not the wisest career move, so Ushio gave Yusei one last look and stomped off in a different direction.

_I'll deal with him later. Stupid Satelliter. I work all my life trying to keep this city clean, and he waltzes in off the street like he owns the place. He's living like a king, and what do I get? Nothing! If I ever get him alone..._

He continued planning out his revenge in increasingly elaborate detail. That pleasing fantasy lasted him long enough to get himself thoroughly lost again. He stopped and glared at his surroundings. One of these days, he was going to ask for a map of this place. He turned around slowly, trying to get his bearings, and as he did so, he heard a familiar voice, the sound of someone talking to herself somewhere nearby. He homed in on it, following it until he found Mikage. She was alone in what looked like a library or reading room, pacing the floor and wringing her hands. She looked up when she heard Ushio come in, and the expression that flashed across her face was one of... fear? Was she afraid of something? Ushio resolved that whatever it was, he'd hunt it down and thrash the daylights out of it, put it in handcuffs, and deliver it to lay at her feet.

"Oh, Ushio, it's just you," she said. "I'm glad to see you. I've just had an alarming experience."

"What's wrong? Can I help?" he asked.

She gave him an appraising look, apparently deciding whether he _could_ help or not.

"Close the door and lock it," she said at last.

He closed it. He was uncomfortably aware that he and Mikage were now locked together inside an otherwise empty room. He'd had some fantasies that began that way, but he had the feeling this wasn't going to turn out the way they did. He turned back to face Mikage, who was watching him as though she wasn't completely convinced that someone wasn't going to spy on them through the closed door anyway.

"Are you in some kind of trouble?" he asked her.

"I don't think so... I don't know," she said. "Can you keep a secret?"

"Absolutely," he agreed.

"From everyone? Even the Director?"

"From anyone. On my honor."

Mikage bit her lip. "The truth is... you know those two escaped convicts? Director Goodwin has called off the search for them."

"He's giving _up_?" asked Ushio, his voice rising to an indignant squeak.

"It's not just that," said Mikage. "He... he's ordered me to tell everyone that the fugitives were killed in a shootout. He's going to leave two armed criminals loose in the streets of the city, and I have to tell the people that everything is safe, there's nothing to worry about..."

"Why?"

"I don't know. Director Goodwin won't tell me," said Mikage, with a shake of her head. "He just said there are other priorities, whatever that means."

"But that's crazy," said Ushio. He couldn't quite get his mind around it. The Director had always been practically fanatical about his determination to keep criminals and undesirables off the streets of his perfect city. For him to simply let a thief and a known killer simply stalk the streets, weapons in hand, doing whatever they wanted without impediment...

"I know," said Mikage. "I can't disobey the Director's orders, but... Ushio, this isn't right. I can't do it. I'm a Security officer - my place is to protect people. I can't do something that I know will put people in danger. It's wrong."

"So what are you going to do?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "I can't disobey the Director. There's no telling what he'll do."

Ushio recalled the last time he'd seen the two of them together and was forced to agree.

"Anyway, thanks for listening to me," she said. She looked appealingly up at him. "You won't tell anyone, will you?"

"Not a word," he promised. "This is between you and me." And he meant it. If word got out, Goodwin would have to know that the story originated from her. She would lose her position, or worse.

"Thank you," she said. "It helps, having someone to talk to."

He straightened up a little, filled with pride.

"You know," he said, "I could snoop around a little. As long as I'm looking for people who aren't supposed to exist anyway, a couple more couldn't hurt..."

"I couldn't ask that of you..."

"I'm volunteering. I don't want those guys out on the street, either."

"You'll get in trouble."

He smiled slightly. "I've been in trouble before. Better me than you. Don't worry, Mikage - I'll find 'em if I have to knock on every door in Neo Domino!"

The look she gave him made it all seem worth it.

"Thank you," she said. "You're a good man, Ushio."

He fought back a blush. "Well, I, um..."

That would have been a good moment to say something charming and sincere, something that would communicate the depths of his passion for her and sweep her off her feet. Unfortunately, Ushio was a man of action, not speech, and he was still groping for words as Mikage moved towards the door.

"I had better get back to work, before someone comes looking for me," she said. She paused, her hand on the doorknob. "Were _you_ looking for me?"

"Yeah, well... it was nothing much," he said. "Our lead fizzled."

"The weren't there?"

"They _were_. They slipped right by us, somehow. Somebody musta tipped them off," he complained. "We found clothing on the scene, and the lab gave us a DNA match, but nobody was there. I sent somebody back to check again, and it looks like that Saiga guy took his stuff and ran, so they're probably gone for good."

"A dead end," said Mikage. She sighed. "Don't feel bad. You did your best."

Ushio found himself touched by her understanding.

"Don't you worry," he said, with renewed determination. "I'll get 'em next time! You'll see!"

He left Mikage, who looked far more reassured now, and headed outside with his mind full of thoughts. At the top of his mind was his list of things he was going to do if he could ever get a moment with the Director and no inconvenient witnesses. Ushio had spent the last few years working a beat on Satellite, living out his days among the criminals, the insane, the dregs of society. He'd grown up on the wrong side of the tracks, and yes, he'd done a few things that he'd just as soon not discuss in detail with anyone if he could help it. He'd seen the worst of what society had to offer. But Mikage was different. She wasn't innocent - she'd proven that the night they'd gone to the bar - but she was _good_. There was nothing banal or corrupt about her; she had no desires but to do her best for the world in general. For anyone to tarnish that purity, to force her to go against her ideals... that was unforgivable.

But he would fix everything. He was her knight in shining armor, riding out to defeat all the people who were making her life difficult. This wasn't just a job, now - this was personal.

Tonight, he would start by finding Jack Atlus.

* * *

"Tonight," said Jack, "we'll start the next phase of the plan."

Carly nodded eagerly. She was the only one who was paying attention, at the moment. They were sitting around Yuji's kitchen table, nibbling on the remains of their pizza and bread sticks. Yuji and Saiga had a stack of papers spread out in front of them, which they were busy marking on with variously colored pencils. The diagrams made no sense to either Jack or Carly, but the two men sounded as though they knew what they were talking about. Jack glared at them.

"Is anyone even listening to me?" he demanded.

"...and I think if we use a timing chain instead of a belt it'll really... I'm sorry, were you saying something?" asked Yuji.

Jack glared at him, apparently deciding whether or not he was teasing him or not.

"I'm listening!" Carly piped up.

"Well, I'm not," said Saiga. "I've heard this plan before."

"I haven't!" said Yuji. "Tell me the plan."

"Jack's going to be a famous duelist," said Carly proudly, "and I'm going to help!"

Jack nodded. "If I'm going to stay here, I'm going to need the public on my side... and to get the public on your side, you use the media. So I am going to duel, and Carly is going to report on it. If enough people are supporting me, Security can't touch me without causing public outrage."

"You really think that will work?" asked Yuji.

"I'll make it work," Jack replied. "I refuse to be kept out of sight forever."

Yuji nodded. "I'll do what I can to help! This D-Wheel we're planning is definitely going to turn some heads. I'm figuring to make you something a bit special."

Carly leaned forward to take a peek, but Yuji snatched the paper away.

"No peeking!" he said. "No one gets to see but me and Saiga until it's done!"

"Fine. Be that way," Jack grumped. "Carly, get your things. We need to get in position before the other duelists arrive."

Carly nodded and scurried upstairs to collect her mask and her camera. While he waited, Jack paced the floor, trying to get himself into the correct mindset. Dueling in the underground was one thing - those were the duelists who couldn't make it anywhere else. The street duelists were a rung up. They would be better than the underground, maybe better than anyone on Satellite. He couldn't afford to be too confident, at least until he'd gotten the feel of things.

Once Carly had arrived, he followed her outside, and they set out in search of duels. Carly seemed to be in a good mood, hopping and skipping in front of him. He guessed she was probably glad to be out of the house and moving around. To tell the truth, he was, too. He could move around more freely than her, since he wasn't marked and no one knew his face, but he still worried about venturing too far and running into trouble. Still, this was a quiet neighborhood, with few people moving around at this late hour. Who was going to notice them?

Meanwhile, a few miles away, Ushio was cruising aimlessly. What else could he do? Without any more leads to follow, the most he could hope to do was patrol the city with his eyes peeled for signs of trouble and hope that an inspiration would come to him. None of the locals he'd talked to that night had seen either Saiga or Jack, or had any idea where they might have gone, and none of them had even heard of Nagisa Carly. It was as though they had simply dropped off the face of the earth. Likewise, there had been no gossip about Crow and Kiryu. He knew Crow of old, and knew he couldn't do anything without making a show of it. It was enough to make Ushio wonder fleetingly if they really _might_ be dead.

_Nah. They're too clever for that. They're out there somewhere..._

He was still contemplating his options when he felt something brush against his face.

"Argh! Yuck! Spiders!" he exclaimed. He swerved his D-Wheel off the road and began wiping furiously at his face, trying to get the spider web off. He swore furiously under his breath. Stupid spider! What did it think it was doing, building a web across the road like that, where innocent drivers could drive into it? If he had his way...

Before he could finish that thought, he felt a scuttling of legs creeping down his back. He flailed wildy, trying to reach it, but it remained stubbornly beyond his grasp. Then there was a sudden burning sensation, and his panic reached new heights as he realized the thing had _bitten_ him. What if it was poisonous? He could get sick! He could die! He needed to find a doctor, or a...

Then a sense of blissful calm washed over him. There was nothing wrong. He was just fine. In fact, he felt better than he had in a long time. His mind was now completely clear and free of worry. All he needed to do was to find those people who had been troubling him and show them who was boss. He knew exactly where they were - it was as though bright lights were shining from them, so that he could see them from anywhere in the city. He would track them down, and then he would really show them...

**To Be Continued...**


	12. Jack Destroys a Goldfish Pond

**Jack Destroys a Goldfish Pond**

**By: SilvorMoon**

It was the bed that was wrong, Yusei decided. It was too soft. His old bed had been so ancient that there was a comfortable Yusei-shaped hollow in the middle of it. This mattress simply squished, until he felt like he was being slowly absorbed. He hadn't had a good night's sleep since he'd started using it. Even now, exhausted from a fruitless search of the city, he could only toss and turn as he tried to find a comfortable way to rest.

_This is ridiculous,_ he decided. _If I can't sleep, I might as well get up._

He threw off his blankets and got to his feet, with a mind towards taking a walk. In this sprawling place, he could work off a week's worth of restlessness without ever having to leave the house. He still hadn't learned where everything was. He found a robe and some slippers, and then let himself out into the dark hallway.

It was amazing how little noise there was. By day, there was always a lot of commotion, with servants going about their daily chores and various assistants of the Director darting about on Security business. Now there was nothing but silence. Yusei tread cautiously, afraid of waking someone who would demand to know why he was creeping about in the middle of the night. A number of people had made it clear to him that they didn't care if he was the Director's ward or not - he was still from Satellite, and could therefore be expected to steal or deface the furnishings as a matter of course. Never mind that he had no place to put anything he stole but his room, anyway, or that Goodwin seemed more than willing to hand him money if he wanted it.

He explored. The house seemed even larger at night - some of the more impressive rooms had ceilings so lofty that they were lost in shadow, even as moonlight streamed through their windows. Since there was no one around to watch him, Yusei took the opportunity to peer inside cabinets and rummage through drawers. He found closets full of spare linens and shelves of ancient books, but nothing that was of any interest to a mechanically-inclined teenaged boy. On a whim, Yusei tried to let himself inside Goodwin's office, but the door was sealed with a complex system of electric locks, and he doubted that even his Security passcard would open it. He toyed with the idea of attempting to force it, but decided that it would lead to too much trouble if he was caught. He shrugged and moved on. It would have been nice to get a look at some of Goodwin's private plans.

It occurred to him that he might go to the kitchens and make a snack. No one ever seemed to care whether he raided the food supplies, a fact that continued to amaze him. He started making his way in that direction, when he became aware of a sound. Someone was moving around, muttering him to himself. Yusei ducked into an empty room and stood there with the door cracked, listening. Whoever was speaking, he didn't sound like a servant or a Security officer. He sounded like an old man. Even as Yusei watched, he could see a bent figure shuffling his way up the hallway, waving a flashlight as he consulted something written on a scrap of paper.

"It's got to be around here somewhere... Maybe I took a wrong turn..."

_A burglar?_ Yusei wondered.

Whoever this person was, he plainly didn't belong here. Yusei stepped out of his hiding place as the man passed and tapped him on the shoulder. The old man jumped, dropping his flashlight and clutching at his chest. He turned to stare at Yusei.

"Easy there, sonny!" he said. "You just about gave me a heart attack!"

"What are you doing here?" Yusei demanded.

"I'm not doing anything wrong," the old man said. "I'm just looking around. Don't mind me."

"This isn't a tourist attraction," said Yusei. "You shouldn't be here. You'll get in trouble."

The old man considered that seriously. Then he looked back at Yusei. "Do _you_ belong here?"

Yusei felt that this was not a fair question to ask, and at any rate was too complicated to answer completely, so he settled for nodding. The old man brightened at once.

"Then _you_ can show me around!" he said, beaming at his own cleverness.

Yusei started to tell him that this was out of the question, then stopped. He didn't think this strange man meant any harm. It would probably be easier to let him see whatever it was he wanted to look at than to try to force him out. He'd probably just come back when Yusei wasn't looking and get himself into _real_ trouble.

"Fine," he said.

He picked up the fallen flashlight and began to walk, and the old man scampered nimbly alongside him. Yusei was put in mind of a bright-eyed squirrel, darting this way and that, taking everything in with his gaze. He clutched the paper he carried in both hands as if it were a particularly tasty acorn.

"What's your name?" Yusei asked.

"Yanagi Tenzen!" the old man answered. "I'm a treasure hunter!"

"Shh! Keep it down!" Yusei hissed. "Do you want someone to hear you?"

"Sorry..."

Yusei took a breath and let it out. "Anyway, you had better not bet treasure hunting in here."

"Don't worry, sonny, I'm only here to look," Yanagi assured him.

Yusei wondered if he ought to give his name, and decided that it didn't matter. He was probably stuck being "sonny" for the duration of their acquaintance. Instead, he asked, "What are you looking for?"

"There's supposed to be a treasure hidden in the basement of this house," Yanagi said, nodding wisely. "I've been hearing rumors about it for years - something the Director had shipped here from South America! Very top secret! The men who moved it in here were never seen again!"

"Rumors," Yusei repeated.

Yanagi gave him a look of annoyance. "You don't believe me?"

"I haven't been here long," said Yusei, "but I haven't seen anything like that."

"Of course you haven't!" said Yanagi. "It would be hidden! That's what makes it a treasure hunt!"

Yusei decided to let this remark pass.

"Which way are we going?" he said instead.

Yanagi brandished the map. It was a rather sketchy-looking thing, and Yusei beamed the flashlight onto it. He realized instantly that it wasn't very accurate - it looked as though it had been drawn in a hurry by someone who had only been inside the manor once or twice, and was drawing it from memory. The paper was yellowing, much folded and nearly illegible in places. Yusei wondered who had drawn it and why.

"This isn't right," he said. "There's no door there, and this staircase is on the wrong end of the hall... You'll never find anything like this."

Yanagi looked scandalized. "I paid good money for this map!"

"I can still see where it leads," Yusei assured him. "I think."

As far as he could tell, the map was pointing to a particular elevator that Yusei had noticed near Goodwin's office. He'd assumed it was just a service elevator for the convenience of the staff - there was nothing special about it, but at least he knew how to get to it. He led Yanagi to it and stood back as the old man studied it. Yanagi tried the buttons on it, then turned and looked helplessly at him.

"It's locked," he complained.

"I guess we're not getting in, then," said Yusei.

Yanagi gave him another of those speculative looks. "Don't you have a key?"

Yusei started to say that no, he didn't, because he had no need to use the service elevator. Then he stopped himself. Technically, he did, in fact, have a Security card. Goodwin had told him that it would grant him passage into just about everywhere. Would that include the elevator?

"I might," he said. "Wait here."

He hurried back to his room and retrieved the wallet Goodwin had given him, and then rushed back to the elevator as quickly as he could. He was afraid that Yanagi might have wandered off somewhere, but no, the old man was still gazing longingly at the elevator doors and shifting from foot to foot with impatience. His face lit up as he saw Yusei approach.

"Great! Let's go in!" he said.

"I can't promise this will work," said Yusei. "I haven't tried it before..."

Even as he spoke, he ran the card through the slot. The machine blipped at him.

"Fudo Yusei," it said in a tinny voice. "Prepare for retinal scan."

A bright light lit up next to the card slot, and Yusei reflexively raised his eyes to look at it. The light pulsed at him, and he resisted the urge to jerk back.

_I don't like the feel of this. There's something down here that no one is supposed to see... so why does it take my card?_

"Scan complete," said the machine.

The doors to the elevator came open with a soft _whoosh,_ and Yanagi bounded gleefully inside. Yusei saw no choice but to get in after him. As soon as they'd stepped inside, the elevator doors closed, leaving the two of them sealed inside a silvery space filled with blue light. There was a single button next to the door.

_Only one way,_ he realized. Definitely not a service elevator. Yusei pushed the button and felt the floor begin to drop away under him. Beside him, Yanagi cackled in anticipation. The elevator continued to plunge down and down, until Yusei found himself wondering uneasily about the pressure underground and what kind of structure it would take to stand up to it. At last, the machine began to slow, and then eased to a gentle halt. The doors swished open. Yusei stared.

They were standing in a vast underground room. It appeared to be made of rough-hewn stone, its edges worn and crumbly with age. The ceiling was so high that it was invisible, but the floor was lit by a row of torches on either side of a walkway. They cast a sullen red light over everything they could see, and what they saw was...

"That's it!" Yanagi whispered. Now that there was no danger of being overheard, it seemed, he didn't mind being quiet.

Yusei simply stared. Looming above them like a mountain was a stone pyramid, like a temple from the ancient past. In the red light of the torches, it was hard for Yusei not to think of stories of ancient cults sacrificing their victims on altars, spilling blood over the steps of buildings like this one. What, he wondered, was something like _this_ doing underneath the Director's home?

"What is it?" he asked. His voice echoed in the stone room.

"A temple to the star-dragon god," said Yanagi, as if that should have been obvious. "Look, I'll show you."

He scurried down the walkway and started up the steps of the temple. Yusei followed him at a more sedate pace, which turned out to be just as well. Yanagi only made it a few yards up the steep steps before he was gasping for air. Yusei paused next to him and let him scramble up on his shoulders. The little old man was no heavier than some of the children he carried on piggyback rides at Martha's house, and sat still much better than most of them. Even so, it was still a wearisome task to toil up all those steps, and Yusei's legs were beginning to feel the strain by the time he reached the top. When he reached the final step, he sat down to catch his breath, and Yanagi scrambled down and began inspecting the stones. Yusei stayed there for a moment, listening to the old man muttering to himself, until curiosity overcame his tiredness, and he got up to see what was going on.

"What have you found?" he asked, leaning over Yanagi's shoulder for a better look.

"It's just as I thought!" said Yanagi. "See here! I've seen this sign before!"

He pointed at a shape carved into the stone. In the dim light Yusei thought at first that it was simply an ornate circle. Then he realized that it was meant to be a dragon.

"Is this the star-god dragon you mentioned before?" he asked, intrigued in spite of himself.

"That's the one," said Yanagi. "The Crimson Dragon. It was worshiped by a tribe of Incans called the People of the Stars thousands of years ago. It was their sacred guardian."

"What's it doing here?"

"Ahh, now that's a good question!" said Yanagi, rubbing his hands together. "It disappeared a long time ago."

"Naturally."

Yanagi glared at him. "You don't believe me, do you? You think I'm telling you a tall tale. Well, it's all true! There was a time when the world was swamped with darkness, and terrible things came up from the underworld. Those were bad times! Then the high priest of the People of the Stars prayed to the Crimson Dragon, and it came down from the sky and defeated the underworld gods, sealing them in the earth. They're still there, you know. People call them the Nazca lines."

Yusei managed to keep his expression serious, but inside, he was having his doubts. Monsters sealed under the earth? It sounded like someone's fanciful explanation for the otherwise inexplicable lines the desert, but that didn't mean it was the _right_ explanation, any more than he believed the lines had been made to be viewed by aliens in outer space.

"That was nice of it," he said.

"It came at a cost," Yanagi answered seriously. "The Dragon was exhausted after all that fighting. It was on the verge of death, so to save itself, it divided its power into five parts, and invested that power into five people who bear its mark. Legend has it that this power has passed from person to person for thousands of years. When we need the Crimson Dragon again, they'll come together to fight evil. They're called the five Signers."

"Five people..." Yusei repeated. He felt a chill creep over him. Goodwin had sent him looking for five people, with five dragon cards. Could it be that...? "Yanagi, is there some way of telling one of these dragon people from everyone else?"

Yanagi scratched his head. "Well, I hear that some of them have marks on their arms - like this," he added, pointing at the dragon.

Yusei nodded, lost for words. Jack had a mark like that dragon's wings on his arm. Yusei had seen it nearly every day, growing up with him, and he was willing to swear it was exactly like the wings on that carving. And Jack was one of the ones Goodwin had told him to collect...

_It can't be a coincidence. He must be looking for the other Signers. Which means he must really believe all this... Well, he must, to have put all this down here... If it isn't true, why are that dragon's wings on Jack's arm?_

A week ago, Yusei had felt he understood things. He understood computers, he knew how to build complex machines that would run the way they were supposed to, he could out-duel nearly anyone, he was good at figuring out what made people tick. Then he had been dragged into this place where none of his knowledge helped him and nobody behaved like the people he knew. Now, to top it all off, he was being obliged to believe in dragons.

_I wish I was in control of my life..._

He leaned heavily against the wall, his hand pressed against the carving of the dragon. It felt warm to the touch, and for an instant, he thought he felt it shift beneath his fingers, almost like the carving was _moving_.

Then there was a flare of light, a bright red glare that made Yusei flinch and try to pull away, but his hand seemed to have fused to the stone. Heat coursed through his hand, up his arm, until he felt that it would burst into flames. He cried out in pain and gripped his forearm with his free hand, trying in vain to hold back whatever force was surging through him.

Light flared through his fingers...

* * *

"Someone's coming," said Carly.

Jack stopped walking and looked in the direction she was staring. People had been coming and going all night - in cars or on foot, or occasionally even on D-Wheels - so he wasn't certain why this vehicle had caught her attention. After a moment, though, he decided there _was_ something odd about it. It was moving too slowly, well below the speed limit, and the driver's head turned from side to side as though looking for something. At first, Jack thought the driver was merely lost and trying to get his bearings, but as the bike passed under a street light, he saw the Security logo emblazoned across the side of the D-Wheel and realized that this man knew exactly what he was looking for.

"Run!" he ordered. Even knowing it was hopeless, he grabbed Carly's arm and began to run, dragging her behind him. There was no way they could hope to outrun a man on a D-Wheel when they were on foot, but they had to try anyway. Jack vaulted a picket fence with Carly scrambling to follow him, and cut across someone's perfectly manicured lawn. The Security officer pursued, smashing the fence to kindling and tearing over the grass, leaving deep gouges in the turf. He knocked over a statue of Cupid with an arrow, vaulted over a goldfish pond, and swung around in front of Jack and Carly. He flipped his visor and grinned at them maniacally. His eyes shone faintly violet in the dim light.

"What the hell are you?" Jack demanded.

"An emissary of darkness."

"I think you've been drinking on the job," said Jack. "Get out of our way, before I make you move."

"Jack, there's something weird about that guy," Carly whimpered, clinging to his arm.

"That's a clever woman you have there," said the officer. "What will it be, Jack Atlus? Will you take her advice and run, or will you stand and fight?"

"I really think you should sit this one out," said Carly. "Look at his eyes, Jack! They're _glowing_."

Jack shrugged her off. "I never back down from a challenge! Duel me, if you have the nerve."

"Fine," said the officer. "But first..."

He flicked a hand in Carly's direction, and a wave of purple light shot at her, throwing her off her feet and propelling her into a bed of petunias. She lay there in a daze. Jack stared at her before turning to stare at the officer.

"How did you do that?" he demanded.

"I told you, I'm an emissary of darkness - a Dark Signer." The man laughed. "Did you think you were dealing with an ordinary Security officer? This is only the body of a man whose thoughts were full of the desire for vengeance. People like that are mine to control."

"You look like a Security officer to me," Jack retorted.

"Fine. Have it your way. This mortal called himself Ushio before I claimed him. You can call him that if it makes you happier. Either way, you won't get him back unless you duel me."

"Hmph. You don't look like you'd be much of a challenge," said Jack, "but you might make a good warm up." He powered on his Duel Disk and stood ready. Carly, seeing that this game wasn't going to stop no matter what she said, did the only thing she knew to do: she turned on her camera and started it rolling.

"Since you invited me to duel," said Ushio, "I'll take the first turn. I summon Warm Worm in defense position!"

A caterpillar appeared on the field, looming over the man who had summoned it. Jack frowned.

"That's not a Security deck," he said.

Ushio grinned. "Oh, were you counting on knowing what kind of deck I'd play? Too bad. You've _never_ seen a deck like this before. But don't think you can get out of this."

He raised his hand again, and a flare of blue light spread out around him, encircling him, Jack, and Carly as well. Jack reached out a hand to touch it, trying to reassure himself that it was only a hologram. It was solid and smooth as glass under his hand, and cold to the touch. He jerked his hand back and stared at Ushio, who laughed.

"That's right," he said. "It's real. I did warn you, but you didn't listen. I'm a Dark Signer, servant of Earthbound God Uru."

He pushed his sleeve back, revealing a glowing purple mark in the shape of a spider. Reflexively, Jack touched the back of his own arm, where the red birthmark was hidden by his clothing. Ushio laughed.

"Yes, you're a Signer, too," he said. "One of the servants of the red dragon. Ha, but it looks like your mark won't activate, will it? You're not at full strength. Your god won't save you now."

"I can win without anyone's help!" Jack declared. "And I definitely don't need any gods!"

"Not where you're going, you won't," said Ushio. "Your soul is on the line. When you lose, this ring of fire will close in on you - and your pretty little friend - and both of you will die."

"Jack!" Carly yelped. "I _told_ you not to duel this guy! Why didn't you listen to me?"

"Shut up," Jack told her. "I have everything under control!"

"Then duel," said Ushio. He slipped another card into his Disk. "I set a facedown and end my turn."

"Fine. I'll show you how it's really done," said Jack. He drew and glanced at his hand. "I special summon Vice Dragon! When my opponent has a monster on his side of the field and I don't, I can special summon this card from my hand. His attack and defense are halved, but that won't matter, because I'm going to sacrifice him to summon Strong Wind Dragon!"

Dragons flashed in and out of view as Jack summoned them. Pride surged through him as he admired his handiwork. His first turn, and he already had a monster far more formidable than anything his opponent could easily raise. No matter what surprises this trickster had in his deck, they would be no match for Jack's skill.

"Strong Wind Dragon, attack the Warm Worm! Strong Hurricaine!"

Wind rushed from the dragon's wings, destroying the Worm. It also destroyed a flowerbed and a fountain with a statue of a boy doing something most people wouldn't be allowed to do in public. Jack stared, as nonplused as he'd ever been in his life. Behind him, he heard Carly make a startled sound, and then there was a clatter, as if she'd dropped her camera. Jack didn't turn to look - he was too busy looking at the destruction his attack had caused. It had knocked Ushio's abandoned bike over, leaving it dented and spinning its front wheel aimlessly. Only the man himself seemed untroubled.

_So that's how this game is played,_ Jack thought. He should not be afraid. He was as attached to his life as pride could make him, but he had never feared injury or death. If he fought and died, he wouldn't be around to worry about it anymore. Now, though, Carly was behind him - silly, reckless Carly, who had warned him he was foolish to take this challenge. If an attack got past him now, she would take the force of it.

_Then I won't let anything past me. I'll grind this man into powder first!_

Ushio laughed. "I activate Warm Worm's effect! When it's destroyed in battle and sent to the grave, you have to send three cards from your deck to the graveyard!"

Jack gave a hiss of annoyance and flicked a few cards into the graveyard slot. Was that his strategy - to play defensive monsters to avoid damage while whittling away at Jack's deck? That was a coward's ploy. Jack had no patience for people who would attempt such a thing.

"It's your turn," he said. "Make it good. Attack, if you dare."

Ushio only grinned at him and drew his next card.

"I summon Shield Worm in defense mode. When I successfully summon or special summon this card, you have to send one card in your deck to the Graveyard."

"What is it with you and graveyards?" Jack complained, as he removed a card from the top of his deck.

"I told you, I'm a servant of the Earthbound Gods - the gods of the underworld. This is just the beginning," said Ushio. "Cards, people, everything will go down to the grave, except us." His eyes glittered. "Care to join us? How does immortality strike you?"

"Drop dead," said Jack.

"Too late!"

Jack glared at the monster - another defense, and probably with another trick waiting to spring on him. He could attack it, probably destroy it, but it would probably just do something else nasty to him. And then there was that face-down card. His instincts told him to attack and at least let his dragon deal some damage, but if he misjudged...

_Play it safe. Don't make a move until you're sure._

He began to set a face down, planning to end his turn. His opponent sneered at him.

"Running scared already?" Ushio jeered. "Weren't you saying something a minute ago about attacking? Who's the coward now?"

"I'm not a coward!" Jack snapped.

"Then attack... _if you dare_."

Jack gritted his teeth. What was he doing, letting this man bait him? But being called a coward, being _mocked_, was more than his pride could bear. He knew he was the greatest duelist in this city - in the world. He was letting this man - this Dark Signer, whatever that was - rattle his nerve. With any other player, he never would have hesitated to attack. He would have trusted in his own strength and skill to save him. He would not hide behind a wall of defense monsters like this coward. He would prove that he was not afraid.

_I don't need protection! Not from monsters and not from gods. I don't need anyone but myself._

"Strong Wind Dragon! Attack Shield Worm! I'll show you I'm not a coward!"

"You'll show me you're a fool!" said Ushio. "Shield Worm's effect protects me from taking battle damage this turn. Now my trap card, Regret Reborn, is activated! I can special summon one monster destroyed in battle this turn to the field. Shield Worm returns, and you lose another card."

Jack felt his face burning as he sent the card to the graveyard.

"Turn end," he said.

"You see how hopeless it is?" Ushio asked. "If you do nothing but defend, you can't hurt me. If you attack, you only hurt yourself. You can never escape death... unless you're one of us. Surrender now and maybe we'll let you join us."

"I'll never surrender," said Jack, but the protest sounded hollow, even to himself.

"Then die," Ushio replied. "My turn. I activate the spell card Worm Byte to summon two Worm Tokens to the field. Then I sacrifice them to summon the Dark Tuner - Chaos Rogue!"

"Dark Tuner?" Carly repeated. "What kind of card is that?"

"This is proof that I'm the emissary of the underworld," Ushio replied. "When a normal Tuner combines with a monster, its level stars are added to that monster's own. A Dark Tuner, though, _removes_ stars. And I tune this card to my Shield Worm!"

"But that makes negative four stars!" Carly protested. "You can't have negative numbers!"

Ushio grinned. "Yes, I can."

Something stirred over the battlefield. Darkness seemed to coalesce into a solid shape - a humanoid figure with a cloak and hood, carrying a jeweled staff. Cold air surrounded it, making the hairs on the back of Jack's neck stand up. He heard Carly give a squeak of surprise, but he ignored her. All his attention was fastened on the monster forming in front of him.

"How do you like him?" Ushio asked. "Pitch-Dark Zumwalt - A Dark Synchro monster! I'll give you a demonstration in a minute, but first, I activate the effect of Dark Tuner - Chaos Rogue. When that card is used in a Synchro Summon, you have to remove five cards from your deck and send them to the Graveyard." He laughed at Jack's expression. "What? You should have seen it coming. I don't know why the dragon chose you. Maybe he just wanted to help my side along!"

Once again, Jack's hand moved to touch the place where his birthmark was. He'd always believed it marked him as someone special, someone who would do great things, but if it was only a target painted on him so people like this could find him...

"So, do you still want me to attack?" asked Ushio. "Fine. When Zumwalt attacks, the attack of your monster becomes equal to his. Zumwalt, attack his Strong Wind Dragon!"

_What's he doing?_ Jack wondered. _It's going to be a tie..._

There was an explosion that shook branches from the ornamental trees and tore flowers from their beds. The impact was enough to nearly throw Jack off his feet, and he raised an arm to shield his eyes as waves of force washed over him like a tsunami. Somewhere in the midst of the chaos, he could hear Carly scream, and over it all, the sound of his opponent laughing.

"Was that enough of an attack?" he asked.

Jack lowered his arm and glared. "What the hell was that?"

"Pitch-Dark Zumwalt can't be destroyed in battle," said Ushio. "But when he attacks a monster whose original attack points are higher than his, you have to send cards to the Graveyard - one for every hundred points of difference - and Strong Wind Dragon's attack was fourteen hundred points higher than Pitch-Dark Zumwalt's."

_Fourteen cards..._ Jack felt his chest tighten in frustration as he sent over a quarter of his deck to the grave. Now there were only nine cards left for him to work with. Another round like this and they would all be gone. Once they were gone...

"So, what will you do?" Ushio jeered. "You can't destroy my monster. You can't do damage to it. Even if you try, you'll just hurt yourself more. You're washed up, blondie."

"Don't talk to Jack like that!" Carly shouted. Jack turned to look at her. She had lost her mask in the explosion, and she was feeling among the ruined flowers for her glasses. There was a cut across her forehead where a piece of flying debris had struck her. Even from where he stood, Jack could see her shaking. Even so, her gaze was fixed defiantly if somewhat nearsightedly on Ushio. "Jack's the greatest duelist in Neo Domino, and he's not going to let someone like you stop him!"

"Simmer down," said Ushio. "Can't you see he's already lost? It's only a matter of time before you become a sacrifice to the gods!"

"Jack will win," said Carly. "I believe in him."

Ushio laughed. "Well, if that makes you less afraid of death, so be it! It'll all be the same in a minute."

Jack took a breath. How long had it been since someone had believed in him like that? Not since Team Satisfaction had broken up, years ago, and he'd struck out on his own. He'd almost forgotten what it felt like to be trusted that way.

_I can't let her die. I refuse to lose like this! We are going to finish what we started._ Once again, his gaze traveled up to the looming Pitch-Dark Zumwalt. _If there is a red dragon, now would be a good time for it to help out._

He hadn't expected anything to happen. In his heart, he didn't believe there was any such thing as a red dragon, or that it could be of any help to him if there was. He wasn't braced for the pain that lanced through his arm, as though something was trying to push its way through the mark. Red light flared through the fabric of his shirt. Jack closed his eyes, fighting the pain, and felt a wave of dizziness wash over him...

...He was seeing Yusei. Yusei was there, standing in a dark place, with his hand resting against a stone, and carved into the stone was the shape of a dragon, outlined in red light. Jack was seeing this, and that would have been enough to disturb him, but what really shocked him was that Yusei was looking back at him. He watched as Yusei's eyes went wide.

"Jack!" he exclaimed.

"What the hell is going on?" Jack demanded.

Yusei's expression darkened. "I don't know. There's too much to explain all at once. Where are you? Are you all right?"

"I'm in the middle of a duel," said Jack, "with someone calling himself a Dark Signer and an emissary of darkness, whatever those are. And he says he's going to kill me if I lose. Does that sound all right to you?"

"A Dark Signer," Yusei said. "Then it's true - you _are_ one of the Signers."

"You know about them?"

"No. A little," said Yusei. "I only found out just now. You say you're fighting a Dark Signer?"

"That's what he said he was."

"That's bad."

Jack rolled his eyes. "No kidding!"

"Stay on your guard. I have a feeling things are only going to get worse from here on in," said Yusei, "and it's going to take more than just us two to stop it. We have to find the other Signers."

"I have other things to worry about at the moment, Yusei."

"Then finish what you're doing and come help me," said Yusei. "It's going to happen on Satellite, Jack. If we don't get this thing under control, it's going to destroy Satellite, and after that, it's going to destroy _everything_, but it will happen there first."

"I don't care! I got away from that place and I'm never going back. It can look after itself."

"You don't mean that."

"I damned well do."

"Look, there isn't time to argue. I need to find you."

"What for?" Jack demanded. "I've only been gone a few days, and already you can't get by without me?"

"Be serious, Jack," said Yusei. "There are three others besides us, somewhere in Neo Deomino. If you're being attacked by this Dark Signer person, it means that someone is going to try to find us and stop us. If even one of us gets killed before we can find each other, it's all over. We've got to find the rest of the Signers before..."

And then Jack found himself back on the battlefield. He shook himself, trying to clear his head.

_Stupid Yusei. Why couldn't he tell me anything important?_

But the mark on his arm was still glowing faintly. His energy felt restored, his mind clear. He knew exactly what he needed to do. Now it was Ushio who was looking at him uneasily, backing away as if he expected Jack to explode.

"Let's end this," said Jack. "I activate the spell card Trust Mind! Using its effect, I sacrifice Strong Wind Dragon to summon Dark Resonator to the field. Then I'll tune it to Double Protector to summon Explode Wing Dragon!"

"What difference does that make?" Ushio demanded. "My monster can't be destroyed in battle, remember?"

"But it can be destroyed by a special effect," Jack retorted, "and it just so happens that when Explode Wing Dragon does battle with a monster with a lower attack, that monster is destroyed instantly, and you take damage equal to the destroyed monster's attack points!"

"What? No!" Ushio exclaimed.

Jack smiled. "I should thank you. It was you who sent the card I needed to the graveyard so I could summon it. Some ruler of the underworld you are."

"Way to go, Jack!" Carly cheered. "I knew you could do it!"

He cast her a smile before turning back to his opponent.

"Explode Wing Dragon, destroy his monster! King Storm!"

There was an explosion that sent a blast of force in all directions. Flimsy ornamental trees snapped in half, Ushio's D-Wheel went spinning across the yard, and the fishpond was torn apart. Jack threw himself in front of Carly, trying to shield her from the blast. There was a brilliant light, and then it faded, leaving the two of them blinking in the sudden darkness. There was now a shallow crater in the yard, with Ushio stretched out in the middle of it. Fish flopped uselessly around what had once been their pond. Carly scrabbled around to retrieve her camera from where it had lodged in the remains of a rosebush, and stared at the unconscious Security officer.

"Is he dead?" she asked.

Jack knelt next to the man and gave him a cursory examination. "He's out cold. We should get out of here before he wakes up... or someone comes to see what just happened."

He began walking away. Carly hastily put her glasses and mask back on and dashed over to Jack's side.

"You're okay, aren't you?" she asked. "There was that weird red light..."

"I'm fine," said Jack. "I thought you weren't worried about me."

"Well, you know, not _worried_, I mean, I _knew_ you were going to win, but...

"I'm fine," he said again. More softly, he added, "Thank you for trusting me."

She bowed her head bashfully. "Of course I trust you, Jack. We made it this far together." She brightened again. "But I got the most amazing video! I can't wait to post this! _Everyone_ is going to watch it!"

"No," said Jack. "This one is our secret."

"But Jack..."

"I said _no_. This isn't some publicity stunt. I don't understand it yet, but whatever it is, it's serious. We'll keep it to ourselves until we know more about it. Now come on," said Jack. "We have a lot to do tonight."

"Where are we going?" asked Carly, picking up her pace.

"The same place we were before," Jack replied. "To find a duel."

* * *

Yusei felt something snap, as if he'd been holding on to a rope that had broken, and he staggered backwards. He would have fallen all the way back down the stairs if Yanagi hadn't darted behind him to give him a shove. Yusei managed to right himself and leaned against the wall. He half-feared that whatever had jolted him the first time would strike him again, but the stone remained inert under his hands.

"You all right, sonny?" asked Yanagi.

"I... I think so," said Yusei. "What happened?"

"I don't even know! I just saw a lot of red light, and you staring off into space, and then you fell."

"You didn't hear me talking?"

Yanagi shook his head. "Never said a word."

"Strange," said Yusei. "I was speaking to Jack. I'm sure I saw him. He was in trouble..." He pushed back his sleeve, looking down at his arm. There was a mark there, brilliant red, in the shape of the dragon's tail-fin. While he was still contemplating this development, Yanagi leaned in to get a better look.

"Would you look at that!" he said. He looked up at Yusei with admiration in his eyes. "You're one of those Signers, sure enough!"

"So I'm not just supposed to find them," Yusei muttered. He continued looking down at his arm as though he'd never seen it before. "Goodwin must have known. That's why the elevator let me in. What is he up to? Whose side is he on? And what about these Dark Signers?"

"Don't ask me," said Yanagi.

His expression was hurt, as though he felt he'd failed Yusei by not knowing more. Yusei mustered up a smile for him.

"Don't worry. You've helped a lot as it is," he said. "It's a good thing you came here tonight."

Yanagi brightened immediately, and Yusei felt his smile turning genuine.

_At least I have one ally I know I can trust. That's something._

"It's probably not safe for us to be here," he said. "You should probably go back to wherever you came from... but I'm going to want to talk to you again, I think. Not here. Can you tell me where to find you again?"

Yanagi eagerly gave him an address and phone number, and Yusei committed it to memory. He might not know the layout of the city yet, but he was confident that with unlimited freedom to explore, he would be able to find it.

"I'll come see you again soon," Yusei decided. "But for now, I think I had better get you out of the house before someone notices us."

Yanagi looked up at Yusei as though all his dreams had just come true. "Really? You'd visit me?"

"Of course," said Yusei, wondering what he was letting himself in for.

"Wait until you see my collection! I have souvenirs from all over the world. It's a real sight, let me tell you!"

The old man rambled on and on as they returned to the elevator, filling Yusei's ears with descriptions of things he'd never seen or heard of before. Yusei smiled, a bit wryly.

_Well, I did want to know more about the world..._

* * *

In his sleep, Goodwin stirred, his dreams disturbed by the sound of soft laughter. He turned away from his visions to look at the man who'd invaded them.

"What are you laughing at?" he demanded.

Dr. Fudo simply smiled. "I'm laughing because my boy is cleverer than you."

"You woke me up to tell me that?"

"You'd be interested if you knew what was going on," said Dr. Fudo. "Things are slipping out of your control already."

"I am completely in control of the situation," said Goodwin. "Yusei wouldn't dare do anything that would endanger the lives of his friends. He'll obey me. He has to."

"Hm, you might be right about that," said Dr. Fudo. "Did it ever occur to you to simply ask him for help?"

"He wouldn't help me. All those on Satellite see me as their enemy."

"Now, whose fault is that, I wonder?" Dr. Fudo murmured. "Your need to control everything might be your downfall one of these days, Rex. Take my advice. Abandon your foolish plan. Be honest with Yusei. You might still earn his trust. You can't have him as your ally and your opponent both."

"Don't you lecture me," Goodwin snapped. "If you're so clever, why am I alive when you are dead?"

"Clever," Dr. Fudo repeated. "Yes, I was clever. I invented a wonderful machine - and you helped me do it. You're clever, too. We've all paid dearly for our cleverness, haven't we? But Yusei is wise, I think, more than the two of us. He knows the way to men's hearts. He'll find yours out, sooner or later."

"I am not ashamed of anything," said Goodwin. "Now, get out of my head and let me sleep."

Dr. Fudo smiled. "You always were a grouch when you were short on sleep. All right, get some rest. But think about what I said." His smile vanished. "You're still my friend. I don't want to see this end badly for you."

"I can take care of myself. Go away."

Goodwin forcefully put the thought of his old mentor out of his mind, and Dr. Fudo faded away with a sigh.

_This isn't going to end badly. I know what I'm doing,_ Goodwin told himself. But somehow, it was now a lot harder to rest easily than it had been before. He slumped back against his pillows and resigned himself to a long night.

**To Be Continued...**


	13. Divine Professes His Love

**_Author's Note:_** Wow, over 100 reviews! You guys are the best. :-) I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has taken the time to comment on this story. You make it all worth it!

**Divine Professes His Love**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Mikage was attempting to get things done. Her mind was still occupied with the two escaped convicts, but at least there had been no further reports of violence. All in all, the night had been a fairly peaceful one, aside from one incident that she was expecting to hear more on as soon as Ushio arrived. Other than that, her work was fairly routine, and she was actually getting caught up with some of the minor matters she'd been letting slide, the secretarial work that had not seemed as important while more exciting things were going on. She had returned to it a trifle guiltily; she was supposed to be more responsible than to abandon a project just because she didn't feel like doing it.

She was just going through a heap of social correspondence she needed to deal with when she heard a knock on the door, and she looked up with relief.

"Come in," she said.

The door opened, and Ushio let himself inside. Mikage noticed that he was moving a bit stiffly, but she'd been expecting that. She had not been expecting him to be carrying another paper bag, but she supposed she probably should have been. It was turning into a habit. He also had a laptop computer tucked under his arm.

"Are you all right?" she asked him. "I heard you were in an accident." The report that had come to her said that he'd somehow crashed his D-Wheel through a fence and wrecked it. The bike was totaled, and the report was that its engine must have exploded, because that was the only way they could begin to account for the damage done to the yard he'd crashed in. She'd honestly expected him to be in much worse shape than he was.

He rubbed the back of his neck, looking sheepish. "Yeah. The darnedest thing. I don't even remember how it happened."

"Nothing at all?" she asked.

"Well, last thing I remember, I drove right through a spider web. I remember there was a spider crawling on me - I musta tried to swat it off and lost control of the bike."

"Please be more careful. We can't have you getting hurt," said Mikage.

Ushio blushed. "You don't have to worry about me, Mikage. I can take worse than this... Anyway, I brought you something."

He set the bag on her desk. Faintly bemused, she opened it and found that it contained a perfect bronze-colored pear with an elegantly curved stem. She laughed a little.

"What is this for?" she asked.

"Well, you didn't want the doughnut, so I brought something healthy this time," he explained.

"Ushio, you don't have to bring me anything, really!"

He grinned, a bit sheepishly. "It's no trouble."

Mikage gave up. Privately, she had begun to form a guess as to why he was buttering her up this way. After she'd signed him up for this job, she had gone through his files and done a bit of educational reading on his life history. She'd been surprised to find that this apparently upstanding member of the force had a history of juvenile delinquency. His teenaged years appeared to have been one minor incident after another - fighting, shoplifting, possession of various weapons on school grounds, underage drinking and smoking, page after page of it.

And then, suddenly, everything had stopped. There was a notation that he'd apparently suffered some kind of breakdown and spent a span of time in a hospital, and when he'd been released, it had been as a changed man. He'd transferred to a different school and finished the rest of his educational career in quiet mediocrity. After that, he'd tried and failed to get into a few colleges, and held down a number of menial jobs before he'd finally decided that police work was the life for him. He'd enrolled in basic training and passed everything with flying colors, and gone on to have a successful police career. There was every indication that his work for Security had been satisfactory, and sometimes even exemplary, but despite his years of service, he'd been passed over for promotions in favor of other less-qualified men. Mikage could guess why. Despite the fact that he'd been living on the "good" side of town when the disaster had struck, he'd been raised in a bad neighborhood which was now part of Satellite. That plus his record of youthful misbehavior had kept him near the bottom of the pecking order, and consigned to the worst jurisdiction in the city. For him, this was a golden opportunity. Mikage had the authority to cut through the red tape and give him the promotion he obviously deserved. It was in his best interests to get on her good side.

_I"ll have to arrange something for him when this is all over,_ she decided.

"Anyway," he continued, "I've got something to show you. My team found something you'll want to see."

He set the laptop on her desk and started it up. Once it was running, he loaded up a web page and turned the screen around so that she could see it.

"A blog?" she wondered.

"Watch the video they posted last night. It's _real_ interesting."

Curious now, Mikage clicked the play button, and was treated to an image of a girl wearing a mask, standing in front of what looked like a bedsheet hung on the wall behind her to create a backdrop. She was wearing some sort of hooded jacket and a plastic mask that hid her face, but a few wisps of dark hair could be seen escaping from her hood. She was chattering enthusiastically at the camera, talking about duels.

"Our tech guys compared this video to speech samples from Nagisa Carly's trial," Ushio said. "They said they're ninety-nine percent positive the voices match. Now, fast-forward to about the ten minute mark."

Mikage did as she was told. The girl disappeared, to be replaced by a recording of a pair of duelists having a battle in a back alley. Even as she watched, one of them lost and threw down his cards in frustration. The other raised a fist in victory. He didn't get long to celebrate, however, because a newcomer stepped onto the field. Mikage caught her breath.

"Yep, that's him," said Ushio. "Jack Atlus himself. He's got some nerve, coming out in public like that."

"Why would they even be doing this?" Mikage wondered. "It doesn't make any sense. Of all the things they could be doing, they're making blog posts?"

Ushio shrugged. "Who knows why people do the stuff they do? Just be grateful they're making it easy for us to find them."

"I suppose you're right, but it is odd," said Mikage. "Have you had any luck tracing it?"

Ushio shook his head. "Not a thing. The tech team has been trying all night to figure out where it was posted from, but somebody covered their tracks pretty well. It's gotta be that Saiga guy. But it's okay, because I've got a new lead."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. No technology needed - just good old fashioned detective work. After I saw this video, I went through some of the recent police reports, seeing if anyone had reported seeing them sneaking around, and I got a match. Turns out, people have reported a suspicious person wearing a hood and a mask hanging around the Arcadia building downtown, usually at night."

"These videos were taken at night," said Mikage. "And she would probably wear the mask and hood to keep her marker hidden... We should follow up on this."

"You got it! We'll definitely catch these punks this time," said Ushio. He started to yawn, and quickly tried to cover it. "Sorry, it's been a long night."

"You've done enough," she told him. "I'll do some research on the Arcadia Movement and get back to you with what I find. I know I've seen files on them around here somewhere. Director Goodwin treats them as a concern."

"They've got a bad rep," Ushio agreed. "We're on to something this time."

"You've done a wonderful job," she assured him, making him preen with pride. "I'll take care of things now. You rest. You're bound to be sore after that crash."

She chased him out of her office before setting to work with a will. Her earlier labors were forgotten; now she scoured her files for information on the Arcadia Movement. What she found didn't please her. There was very little in her own records that she didn't know already, but she knew that the Director kept more complete files in his own office. It would be no great matter to ask him for them. It was about time she reported her progress to him anyway.

She found the door to his office ajar, so she simply gave a perfunctory knock before letting herself in. The Director was crouched over a stack of papers, looking cross. Mikage cleared her throat, and he glared at her.

"What do you want?" he snapped.

"I need to borrow the file on the Arcadia Movement," she replied.

"You don't need that."

Mikage was taken aback. "But... sir, it's related to the case..."

"You don't need it."

"But..." Mikage took a deep breath, trying to collect herself. "You said that finding the two who escaped Satellite should be my top priority. This is relevant to their case."

"If it were relevant, I would have no qualms," said Goodwin, "but I can assure you that the Arcadia Movement has nothing to do with them. Don't waste your time."

Mikage started to say something, then changed her mind. It was obvious she was not going to get anywhere with arguing. She bowed her head to hide her irritation.

"Yes, Director. Of course. I'm sorry to disturb you."

She left his office with her good mood spoiled. How could he? He'd given her a job, and now he wouldn't let her do it - and yet he would blame her if it wasn't done! It had been bad enough when he'd told her to cover up for the escaped convicts, but _this_ felt like a personal insult. It was as though he were setting her up to fail.

_I won't have it,_ she decided. _If he won't help me, I'll do it myself. I'll just copy the files while he's not looking. I won't have to tell him how the fugitives were captured, just so long as they're caught. I am not going to fail this mission just because he's covering up..._

Covering up? Covering what? Why was he protecting the Arcadia Movement, anyway? He spoke very little of them to her, but she'd formed a vague impression that he loathed them. Was there something about them he didn't want her to know?

_I'll find out soon enough,_ she decided.

In the meantime, she would organize such information as she had, so that she would have at least something to show Ushio when they reconvened. Perhaps it might even be better this way - to investigate independently, without the Director breathing down their necks. Until then, she would just have to work on lesser projects. She sighed. Why was it that just when she'd thought life was about to get interesting, she had to go back to trivial work?

But as she returned to her desk, her gaze strayed to the little laptop. Ushio, either for her own use or out of sheer absent-mindedness, had left it behind. The video window was still open. She hesitated a moment, torn between duties, before finally hitting the "play" button again. She fast-forwarded to the moment when Jack appeared.

_He really is an amazing duelist,_ she thought, as she watched him play. He looked so proud and valiant as he stood there, eyes flashing, every move perfectly executed. He was, she thought, like a king, with his noble bearing and confident gestures. The other players looked like mere amateurs next to him.

_I have to capture him,_ she told herself. _He's breaking the law._

By doing what? Dueling? Since when was that wrong? Everyone said that the people on Satellite were the dregs of society - dirty, uneducated, selfish, untrustworthy, terminally lazy at best and downright violent at worst. She'd seen how many criminals were shipped off to the island every year, and how many were brought back again for re-education. She had never met anyone who could disprove what she had been taught. The Director had always insisted that this was the way things were, and she had never thought to disbelieve him. But now she was realizing that she didn't trust him as much as she used to. She couldn't convince herself, no matter what he said, that there was anything right about taking a man who seemed no different than anyone in the city, and telling him that he must stay on that island forever with no chance of self-improvement, just because he had been born there.

_I don't want to stop him._

She shook her head. It wasn't her decision whether he was arrested or not. The law was the law, and he had broken it. He had assaulted an officer and stolen a Security vehicle. No matter what his other qualities were, they didn't excuse him for committing a crime.

_Even if it was the only way out?_

She pushed all these thoughts out of her head. There was nothing she could do to change the system now. All she could do was to follow orders, and hope that when the time came, the Director would choose to show some lenience.

A small part of her mind whispered, _And if we find him, I can meet him face to face..._

She pretended she hadn't had that thought and turned her attention back to her work. That lasted all of five minutes, as her gaze continually strayed back to the laptop screen. She really should turn it off. She reached out to do so, but her hand hovered above the button. Instead, she pressed "play" on the video again, and began to watch.

* * *

It was a beautiful home. Demak was admiring it from the safety of a small coffee shop a couple of blocks away. He'd always wanted to live in a home like that. One of these days, he thought, he would get one like it.

Perhaps when he'd finished destroying civilization, he'd live in that one for a while, just because he could.

As he watched, the two children darted outside. They appeared to be arguing about something, though he was too far away to make out anything more than hand gestures. They weren't happy, that much was obvious, and Demak felt grim pleasure in seeing it. People like them _should_ suffer. Lucky brats. They didn't know how good they had it. Especially that girl...

_But I will have it. The Ancient Fairy Dragon..._

His hand strayed to the pocket where he kept the card hidden. He'd been carrying it for a long time, and it had fascinated and tortured him. The thought that this spoiled little girl might someday take it from him was intolerable.

_If only she would speak to me... but if I can't have her, no one will._

He had not been very old when he'd died. He hadn't been very sorry to end it - it hadn't been much of a life. He had been born in a bad part of town, and had spent most of his life surrounded by filth and decay. Home had been a run-down two-bedroom apartment, where he'd shared what little space he had with three brothers. He'd never owned anything that hadn't been used by someone else - everything came to him already worn, frayed, dented, dirty. His home was rarely clean, and his surroundings even less so. He lived in a world of gray asphalt, gray buildings, gray smog, gray dust.

Then a wonderful thing had happened. An elderly neighbor had given him a bit of money in exchange for bringing her clothes to the laundromat for her. He'd been willing enough to do the job - there was a television in the laundromat, and it was easy enough to sit and daydream while the clothes went around and around. And when he was done, he had a bit of money that was his alone, to spend on whatever he wanted! Dazzled with riches, he'd gone to the nearest convenience store and contemplated his options. The thought of candy tempted him, but he had no way of knowing when he'd get any more money, and it seemed like a waste to spend it on such fleeting pleasures. Then his eye had been caught by a bright metallic flash - a packet of cards in a colorful wrapper. The shopkeeper had assured him that these Duel Monsters cards were becoming more popular every day, and so he'd bought them. He'd taken them off to a quiet place, a hidden nook under a stairwell that only a child could slip into and only he ever used, and there he had carefully peeled away the foil to reveal the riches hidden beneath. It was the first time in his life he had owned something that was beautiful and new.

Those cards became his treasures. Other boys played with them, but he simply kept them. He hid them from his family, fearing that they would be taken from him, that someone would paw them with sticky fingers, or write on them, or bend them, or tear them. He could not bear to have anything happen to them that would spoil their beauty. He kept his eyes open for more opportunities to pick up a bit of change here and there, so that he could enlarge his collection. Those cards were the one bright spot in his world, his one love and his obsession. If it came to a choice between going without food and acquiring more, he would have taken the cards every time.

Then one day, a miracle happened. He had been admiring one of his favorite cards, a Seven-Colored Fish. It was not one of the rarest or most powerful, but he loved its bright colors and the expression on the creature's pugnacious face. He'd always felt a sort of personality emanating from that card that he'd never felt from the others. It had been only a slight surprise when the card had begun to speak to him. The next thing he knew, he had a multicolored fish swimming through the air alongside him. He had been overjoyed, and he and the fish had become fast friends immediately. It hadn't taken him long to realize that he was the only one who could see the creature, but that had only pleased him more. It was good to have something that was only his, that only he could see and enjoy.

As his collection expanded, so did his circle of shadowy friends. As he grew older, he withdrew more and more from human contact, preferring to live only in the company of his monsters. There was no greater joy in his life than to be alone with them, surrounded by them, basking in their presence. Slowly, a thought began to form in his mind: if having a few monsters made him happy, it must be even better to have more. It wasn't long before his whole life revolved around collecting cards. There was no length he would not go to, even to add a single card to his collection. He found work where he could, but had little education and few practical skills, and he soon realized he would never be able to earn enough to honestly pay for the rare cards he wanted. Instead, he trained himself to duel, betting cards on the outcome of battles. When there was no other option, he would steal.

That was how the Ancient Fairy Dragon had come into his possession. He had first seen her in the hands of another man, a survivor of the disaster that had split Domino City in half. The moment he had seen that card, he knew he had to have it. He had never seen such a beautiful card - it would be the prize of his collection. He had followed the man, cornered him, and beaten him senseless. By the time the man woke up, Demak and the Dragon had both been long gone.

But his victory had been marred. He had the card in his hands, but the dragon herself remained elusive. She would not speak to him, no matter what he did or said. The Seven Colored Fish told him that it had seen some other human speaking to the dragon in the world of monsters. He'd been furious - how dare someone else speak to _his_ dragon? He wanted to find this person and punish them for taking away what was rightfully his, even more so when he found out that it was only a little child, one who lived in a beautiful home and had all the things he'd never had. She didn't need a dragon. He did. Who was she to deprive him of what he so desperately wanted?

But before he could do anything about it, he had died. It had been such a ridiculous ending, he thought. He'd never even gotten a good look at the man who killed him - a boy, nearly, who had threatened him for his card collection and refused to believe he didn't have all his cards on his person at the time. He'd died in a back alley, watching someone rifle his pockets for cards and spare change.

They hadn't expected him to wake up.

Demak finished his coffee, his gaze fixed on the two children who were disappearing up the street.

_I'll have my justice,_ he thought. _I won't let anyone stop me... and I'll teach that spoiled rich girl to meddle in my business!_

Meanwhile, unaware of any danger, Rua and Ruka were making the trek downtown.

"I don't see why I can't come!" Rua complained.

"You wouldn't like it anyway," said Ruka patiently. "We really don't do much but sit around and talk."

"Why do you even bother to go, then?"

Rua looked absolutely mystified, and Ruka resisted the urge to sigh. Didn't he _ever_ run out of energy?

"I'm learning things," she said. "It's interesting."

"You should come with me to visit Misty. That would be more fun," said Rua. "We can duel and eat cake!"

Ruka smiled a little. "That does sound like fun. How about this? I'll introduce you to Aki, and then after my lesson we'll visit your friend together."

"Hmm..." said Rua. "I guess that would be okay. Your friend's nice, right?"

"She's nice," said Ruka. "Just quiet... It takes a while for her to warm up. But you can do it - you're good with people."

"Yeah!" said Rua, brightening at the praise. "You leave it to me!"

They continued together towards the towering building that housed the Arcadia Movement. Ruka still wasn't very clear exactly on what the Arcadia Movement actually _was_, other than that it seemed to serve as a home for individuals with unusual mental talents. Ruka hadn't met very many aside from Aki, but Aki had assured her that there were a good many of them, from adults to children not much older than Ruka herself.

They reached the building, and Ruka led her brother into the lobby. A man at a desk regarded them with a look of suspicion, but Ruka walked calmly up to him, standing on tiptoe to see over the top of the desk.

"I'm here to visit Izayoi Aki," she said. "Could you tell her I'm here, please?"

"You're a friend of Miss Izayoi?" the man asked, eyebrow raised.

"Yes," Ruka told him. She had observed that Aki seemed to command a surprising amount of respect from the people there. "Please tell her it's Ruka here to see her."

"As you wish."

The man picked up a phone and spoke to someone on the other end of it. It must have had its effect, because a few moments later, Aki herself appeared. She was in the process of pinning her hair into place.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. I was taking a nap," she said.

"Oh, I didn't mean to wake you..."

"That's all right. It was time to get up anyway," said Aki. "Is this your brother?"

Ruka nodded. "This is Rua."

"Hi!" Rua chimed in.

Aki regarded him seriously, giving him a look that went on for so long that he started fidgeting. When she finally released his gaze, he gave a small sigh of relief.

"I see," she said, as if some question had been answered. "It's nice to meet you, but I'm afraid you won't be allowed upstairs. I'm sorry. It's nothing personal."

Rua's face fell. "Yeah, I get it."

"This is a place for developing psychic power," said Aki. "You aren't a psychic duelist."

"Neither is Ruka!"

"She is. She's still developing her powers. That's why she needs to learn, before..." Aki trailed off, then shook herself. "It's bad to go untrained."

"Oh," he said. He looked thoughtful for a moment. "So... Ruka could get in trouble if you don't teach her stuff?"

"That's right," said Aki.

"Well, okay," said Rua. "But you'd _better_ not let my sister get hurt!"

A ghost of a smile flitted over Aki's face. "Don't worry. I'll keep a close eye on her."

"I'll be fine," Ruka assured him. "I'll see you later, okay? I'll call as soon as I'm done."

Rua nodded and gave Aki one last suspicious glance before heading for the door. Aki watched him go, her expression thoughtful.

"Did I upset him, do you think?"

"I think he's a little jealous," Ruka admitted.

Aki looked faintly wistful. "You're lucky to have someone who wants to protect you so much."

"Don't you have family?" Ruka asked her.

"Not anymore," said Aki. "They don't want me. They're afraid of me. They're happier without me."

Ruka bowed her head. "I'm sorry..."

"It's all right. My family is here," said Aki. She brightened a little. "Divine wants to meet you. I'll have to introduce you to him today."

"He's your teacher, right?" asked Ruka, as she followed Aki onto the elevator.

"My mentor, yes. He's very kind to me. He took me in when no one else wanted me."

Ruka gave her a sly look. "Is he your boyfriend?"

"No!" said Aki, blushing vividly.

Ruka giggled. _She likes him..._

They disembarked on one of the upper floors, and Aki led her into an office. It was quite the impressive space, bigger than Ruka's own bedroom, and lined with marble statues wearing not nearly enough clothing. Ruka was so fascinated by this peculiar decor that she almost didn't notice that there was someone else in the room. A well-dressed red-headed man was sitting at a desk at the far end of the room, typing busily away at a computer.

"Divine," said Aki. "A moment?"

He glanced up, and his preoccupied expression melted into a warm smile. "Aki. What can I do for you?"

"I brought the girl I was telling you about," said Aki. She nudged Ruka forward. "Ruka, this is Divine."

"Hello," said Ruka uncertainly.

Divine rose and walked closer, bending so that he could look down at Ruka.

"Hello, Ruka," he said. "It's very nice to meet you."

He smiled at her. He had a pleasant face, handsome and intelligent, but there was something about him that struck Ruka as being wrong. There was something too _polished_ about that smile, as though he had practiced it in a mirror until he'd gotten just the right amount of warmth and charm in it. For a moment, she had the feeling that he was contemplating how she would taste. She fought the urge to back away. Instead, she bowed her head, grateful for the excuse to break eye contact, and mumbled something polite.

"I see why you brought her here, Aki," said Divine. "She has potential. I'd like to test her later, just to see how far she's progressed."

Aki frowned a little. "She's still very new at this."

"Don't worry. Just leave everything to me," said Divine. "I sense a great power in her. It hasn't been fully awakened yet, but it's there. I think she can stand up to just about anything."

"I'll trust your judgment," said Aki.

"Continue training her in meditation and self-control," said Divine. "Don't try to duel her yet. I'm not sure what effect it would have if your powers were to clash. I would rather oversee her dueling training myself."

"Of course," said Aki.

"I'm a bit busy at the moment," Divine went on. "Some business negotiations. I'll be finished in an hour or so. I'll catch up to you then, all right?"

"All right. Come, Ruka."

Ruka was more than happy to get out of that office.

"Do I really have to learn dueling from him?" she asked.

"Divine is a good teacher," said Aki. "You'll learn a lot from him."

"I'd rather learn from you," Ruka replied.

Aki looked uncomfortable. "I'm not skilled enough yet. If I lost control of my power, I might hurt you. It really would be better if you trained with Divine instead of me."

Ruka frowned a little. She really wasn't sure she wanted to have to work with Divine if she could help it. Even if he hadn't been anything but pleasant during their brief encounter, the idea of being alone with him made her uneasy.

"What if we just play for fun?"

"Hm?"

"Just for fun," Ruka repeated. "That's not the same as training, right?" Privately, she hoped that if she could coax Aki into playing with her, perhaps she could convince her that it would be all right to train her.

"Well..." said Aki. She bit her lip, clearly torn. "It would be nice... All right. Just this once."

Ruka nodded eagerly. "I get tired if I try to duel too much anyway."

"You're burning through more energy than you should," said Aki. "You'll feel that way less often once you've learned more control."

"So let's practice so I can learn control, then," said Ruka.

They went to Aki's room. Ruka had been there on her previous visit, and felt at home there. It was a room fit for a princess, with a beautiful canopied bed that would have made a fine resting place for Sleeping Beauty, and tapestries of rose-filled gardens on the walls. Warm light was cast by a series of miniature chandeliers with dozens of crystal pendants. There was a glass-enclosed shelf filled with porcelain dolls in elaborate clothing, and Ruka could guess how expensive they must have been. Some of them were wearing delicate pieces of jewelry made of tiny, tiny stones. Ruka wondered if they were made of real gems, and suspected that they probably were. Aki's vanity table was littered with jewelry boxes, left casually open to reveal their contents, and Ruka was _certain_ those jewels were real.

"You have a nice room," Ruka observed. "Better than mine. I have to share with Rua. Where did you get the dolls?"

"Divine gave them to me," said Aki. "All of this was given to me by Divine. When he found me, I had nothing but the clothes I wore."

"Wow," said Ruka. She let her gaze rove around the room again, wondering if she had misjudged the man. Perhaps he had only seemed cold because he'd been busy and hadn't wanted to be interrupted. He surely must care about Aki to go through all this trouble for her.

Aki moved a desk aside to give them plenty of room to duel in. Since Ruka had not brought a Duel Disk of her own, Aki found one to loan to her, and they settled in to play. Aki graciously let Ruka take the first turn. Ruka couldn't help but smile as she summoned her first monster; dueling might have tired her, but it was always good to see her old friends.

"How did you find out about this place?" Ruka asked, as she ended her turn.

Aki frowned slightly as she considered her hand. "It's a long story."

"You can tell me. I'll listen."

"It all started on my tenth birthday," said Aki, as she put a monster into play. "My father... he was a very important businessman. He was always working. He'd always promise he'd spend time with me, but when the time came..."

"I know how that feels," said Ruka quietly. "I hardly ever even _see_ my parents."

Aki nodded. "He promised that he would be there for my tenth birthday party... but I waited and waited, and he never came. But he got me the deck I'd wanted as a gift, and promised to play with me. We were playing... just like you and I are now... when his phone rang, with someone calling and telling him he had to come in to work, and I knew he was going to leave me again. I just... snapped."

As she spoke, her monster attacked, and Ruka flinched. There was a sense of tension in the air that had been rising as Aki continued to speak, and something inside of Ruka seemed to be tensing in response.

_Is this what she meant by needing to learn control? I feel like I'm holding _something_ in place..._

"That was the first time my powers manifested," Aki went on. "I attacked my father without even meaning to, and the room was full of flames. He looked so frightened, and I didn't know what was going on. I was crying. And he called me a monster..."

"You're not a monster, Aki," said Ruka, trying to be reassuring. She was setting her own cards now, feeling as though she were digging in to defend herself.

Aki shook her head. "My parents thought so. They were afraid of me. They sent me away to a boarding school to get me away from them. But I couldn't control my powers, and I kept hurting people. Everyone hated me. I couldn't make any friends - they were all too afraid. So I ran away. I tried to go back home, but..." Aki's voice caught. "I saw my parents through the window. They were drinking and laughing - they were _happy_ that I wasn't there with them. I knew then that they didn't want me back, that they were _never_ going to want me back..."

"Aki..."

The tension in the room was growing stronger. It seemed to be settling on Ruka - not where she would have expected, in her mind or the pit of her stomach, but on her arm, and when she looked, she could see a red glow there. It looked like the shape of a claw. She looked at Aki, wondering if she could see it, too, and realized there was a similar mark on Aki's own arm.

"Aki, what's going on?" she asked.

"The dragon's birthmark," said Aki, looking mystified. "You have one too? Why do you...?"

"I... I don't know," Ruka managed. The pressure in the room was growing unbearable. She shook her head, feeling as though the world was blurring before her eyes. Then she blinked and looked again. It wasn't her eyes that were playing tricks on her. Things in the room were moving. Aki's hair stirred as if in a wind, and the dolls were shivering in their case. The curtains on the bed rippled, the tapestries flapped, and the necklaces in their jewelry boxes slithered like snakes.

"Stop it!" Ruka shouted. "Aki, make it stop!"

Aki's eyes were panicked. "I can't! I don't know how!"

Slowly, one of the jewelry boxes began to lift itself into the air. Another one followed. Books flapped off their shelves like papery birds, and the pillows lifted themselves off Aki's bed. One of the boxes began to move across the room, slowly at first, but rapidly gaining speed, and Ruka realized that it was making a beeline straight for her. She gave a shriek, and in that instant, the door flew open. Divine was standing there, his eyes blazing.

"What is going on in here?" he demanded.

"Divine!" Aki exclaimed.

She turned to him with a look of desperate hope on her face, but as her attention shifted away from Ruka and onto him, the rogue jewelry box also changed direction, flying straight towards him. He had only enough time for a look of surprise to flash across his face before it hit him, striking his temple with the sound of cracking bone. His features went slack and he crumpled to the floor.

"No!" Aki screamed. "Divine, no!"

The tension in the room broke. Everything fell down with a crash, but Aki paid no attention to any of it. She fell to her knees next to Divine with tears coursing down her cheeks.

"Divine! Wake up!" she pleaded, but there was no response. Blood trickled down his face; there was an ugly indentation in the side of his head. Aki turned to Ruka. "Go get help! Hurry!"

Ruka nodded and sprinted out of the room, trying desperately not to think of what she had just witnessed. She had never seen a man die before...

_This is my fault._

If she hadn't pressed Aki to duel her, this wouldn't have happened. Divine had warned them both that it wouldn't be safe to let their powers interact with each other so soon, but Ruka hadn't trusted him, and she hadn't listened, and now he was dead because of her. It had been _her_ power that had caused this. She had felt it building. She had seen it glowing on her arm. If it hadn't been her power that was causing things to go wrong, why hadn't Aki been able to resist it and control it? She had training at controlling herself, but Ruka was a rank amateur. Her gifts hadn't been under control, and this was the result.

_Never again. No matter what it takes, I can't let this ever happen again!_

* * *

Divine had definite beliefs about the afterlife. Specifically, he believed that there wasn't any such thing. While you were alive, you enjoyed as much as you could and you didn't worry about the consequences, because once you were dead, it was all over. If his supernatural gifts weren't enough to allow him to find definite proof of an afterlife, why should he believe the common rabble when they said there was?

He was now displeased to discover that there had been an error in his calculations.

"Damn," he muttered.

_Yes,_ said a voice. _You are._

Divine looked around for the source of the voice, but he could see nothing besides himself. No, that wasn't quite right - he could see a vague reddish glow, somewhere below him, and he seemed to be tending generally towards it. If he could have, he would have rolled his eyes. Fire and brimstone - it seemed so predictable it was almost comical.

He drifted a moment longer, and then suddenly he was inside his body again, standing in a stone cavern. A quick glance at it showed that there seemed to be no entrance or exit - just a stone space with a hollow in it, with no way out. In the center of the room, there was a forge of some sort full of glowing coals. There was also a table that seemed to be full of various instruments of torture: knives, pincers, whips, things he didn't even know the name of, but he was sure they would hurt. Some pokers rested in the coals, their tips glowing cherry red.

Even as he was contemplating these things, chains appeared out of nowhere and began wrapping themselves around him. He struggled against them, but though they were as thin as the chain of a lady's necklace, they were unbreakable, and cold as ice. They seared him with cold where they touched him, and he cried out in pain as they fastened themselves to his arms, his legs, his fingers, his eyelids. Soon he could not move for chains, not even to blink. They jerked him across the room, making him stagger and stumble like a puppet controlled by an inept puppeteer. His hand picked up a knife and brought it to his throat, pressing it to his skin...

"No! Stop it! Don't do this!" he cried, trying desperately to pull away.

His hand stopped. He thought he heard a voice laughing.

_What's wrong? I thought this was what you enjoyed..._

"Nobody in their right mind would enjoy this!" he shouted back.

_But you did. In life, you were a master manipulator. You didn't control people with chains, but with sweet words. The effect was the same: you hurt everyone who came in contact with you. Now you are getting your comeuppance._

Divine listened, uncomprehending. "What do you mean?"

_Every pain you inflicted - every spirit you crushed, every heart you broke, every life you took - you will inflict on yourself here. This is true for every person you hurt, but also for every person they hurt because of what you did to them, and every person who hurts someone else as a result of that, and so on forever, as long as your evil remains in the world._

"And then what? What happens when it's all over?" he asked desperately.

_Then it will end. Then you will be left alone at last. That is what you wanted, isn't it? During your life, you loved no one and nothing but yourself, and so that is what you will have: yourself, alone, forever. Nothing more. No companionship, no admiration, not even hatred. No material pleasure or pain. Just yourself._

Divine had a sudden stark image of endless empty time, stretching on forever until he would long even for the chains and the torture, just to feel something again. He would go mad, he would die - but he couldn't, because he was already dead.

"That can't be true!" he said. "I did - I did care about someone! I cared for Aki! I took good care of her..."

_Ahh, yes. Aki._ There was a hint of interest in the voice. _She may be your only hope. I can free you from this, Divine. I am one of the lords of the underworld. If I choose to, I can make you immortal, so that you will be spared this fate. You can live forever. Just one thing..._

"Anything!" Divine promised. "I'll do anything you want. Just get me out of here."

_I will return you to your life. I will give you great power. I will give you freedom from death. In return, you will do two things. You will pledge yourself to my service, to obey my orders when I ask it of you. And..._

"And?"

_And when the time comes, I will ask you to kill Izayoi Aki as a sacrifice to me._

"I'll do it," Divine promised. "It's a deal. I swear my allegiance to you."

The voice laughed. _Good. Then live again, my servant..._

Divine felt something rush through him, and he screamed as it forced its way through his body, as though the roots of a tree were growing through his veins. They writhed and pushed and twisted until he thought he must break apart, and then...

He was blinking in sudden brightness. He twitched and groaned, still disoriented. There was something sticky in his hair, and he tried to brush at it.

"Divine?" He heard Aki's voice, and forced himself to focus his eyes on her.

"Aki," he said.

"Oh, Divine..."

Aki flung herself at him, sobbing. He managed to sit up and put his arms around her, gently stroking her hair.

"It's all right," he told her. "It's all right."

"I... I thought you were..."

"I'm fine. Never better," he assured her. "I was just stunned a moment, that's all."

Aki pulled away, blinking tears from her eyes. "But... I couldn't find a pulse. You weren't breathing..."

"Things always look worse when you're in a panic," said Divine soothingly. "You must have just not been checking closely enough. I'm _fine_. Look, I'm barely scratched."

And it was true. The deep dent left by the box was now no more than a scratch - bloody but clearly superficial. Aki stared at it wonderingly.

"It looked so much worse before," she said.

"Cuts on your scalp always bleed worse than anything," said Divine. "I'm sure it looks much worse than it is. Just let me clean myself up and I'll be fine. You won't know anything has happened to me."

That much, at least, was the truth. For someone who had been dead a moment ago, he felt surprisingly good. In fact, he felt _wonderful_. Ask him to climb a mountain, to swim an ocean, to leap tall buildings in a single bound, and he would have done it all and still been home in time for dinner. He felt as though pure energy ran through his veins in place of blood. It was all he could do just to sit still and be calm, instead of rushing about for the joy of it.

Aki's eyes welled with fresh tears, and she embraced him again. "I was so frightened..."

"Aki, princess, it's all right," he murmured. "But you know, don't you, why this happened? You disobeyed my orders."

"I know. Forgive me."

"Of course I forgive you," he said. "But you have to promise me that you will never disobey me again. Will you do that for me?"

"Of course, Divine. I never should have gone against you. You always know best."

"That's my girl," he said. "Now, don't cry anymore, all right? I'm not hurt, and I'm not angry. I love you, Aki. I love you more than anyone in the world."

He said it convincingly, and in that moment, he almost believed it himself. Surely she had given him a wonderful gift, one he might never have found on his own. He was deeply grateful to her. It would almost be a shame, he thought, when he finally had to kill her.

**To Be Continued...**


	14. Yusei Buys a Drink

**Yusei Buys a Drink**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Jack was having a good afternoon. Most of the time, he would not have been particularly pleased at having to stay indoors all day, but he had slept through most of the morning anyway. Even after his skirmish with Ushio, he'd managed to put in a hard night's dueling, and had carried off a nice bit of prize money for his efforts - and more importantly, Carly had brought home plenty of video to make a new posting out of. Jack had given some of the money he'd earned to Yuji to help cover the cost of the new D-Wheel's parts, and Yuji had returned from a trip to the hardware store with several packs of new cards. Now Jack was settled at the kitchen table with his collection spread out in front of him, contemplating options for deck construction. It was enough to make him almost cheerful.

The kitchen door was flung open, and Carly waltzed in.

"Whee!" she exclaimed. She twirled around, arms flung wide as though embracing the whole world. She finished the spin by embracing Jack in particular.

"Stop that," he said absently.

She tightened her grip on him for a moment before letting go, and flung herself into an empty chair.

"We're a hit!" she said. "You should _see_ how many hits we've got, and the video hasn't been up twenty-four hours yet. I _knew_ all those fake accounts would be worth the effort."

"You and Saiga are doing a good job, then," said Jack.

Carly glared at him. "_I've_ been doing a good job. All Saiga does is hide in the garage working on your bike."

"Like I said, you two are doing a good job."

"Jaaaaack..."

He looked up from his cards to face her. "Do you really need me to tell you you're doing a good job? You know you're the only one of us who knows how to do what you're doing."

"Well, it would be nice," said Carly. She gave him the smile that meant she knew she was annoying him and was probably not going to stop anyway. Jack rolled his eyes.

"Fine. If it will keep you quiet... you are doing a _very good_ job, and we are all _very proud_ of you. There. Happy?"

"Yup!" she chirped. She laughed and got up to fling her arms around him again. "You act like an old grouch, but you can't fool me."

"I told you to stop that."

Carly released him, grinning smugly. "You just said I'm indispensable. I'm allowed a few perks."

"Humph," said Jack. "You have some strange ideas."

Before she could come up with a retort, there came the sound of a door being flung open and allowed to slam shut again, and the steady click of a cane that meant Yuji was on his way. A moment later, he scampered into the room and made a beeline for the fridge. He was dressed in overalls, smudged with oil and grease.

"Man, it's hot out today," he said. "You guys want something to drink? I'm about to turn into a pile of dust. Did you get any good cards, Jack? I saw them while I was out getting things and thought maybe you'd want them. But the bike is coming along great! I can't wait to show it to you. It's going to be my best work ever! We stayed up all night working on it. I can't believe how fast it's coming together... Did you say you wanted something to drink or not?"

Jack fixed him with a look. "What did you want me to answer first?"

"Drinks?" Yuji suggested.

"Vanilla Coke?" Carly suggested.

"Whatever you have is fine," said Jack. He'd already turned his attention back to the cards.

Yuji took a few cans from the fridge and plunked them down on the table before pulling up a chair to join the others.

"I got really lucky with this bike project," he said. "I had to get some special parts for it, but my supplier actually had everything I needed, for once. We should have nearly everything ready by tomorrow."

"You do fast work," said Jack.

Carly nodded. "Have you even slept since we got here?"

"Saiga and I are taking it in shifts," said Yuji. "I already had a frame set up, anyway. The rest is details. We'll be ready to paint it soon. Hey, what color did you want it, anyway? Red, like your dragon?"

"Not red," said Jack decided. "The D-Wheel Yusei was building was red."

"Well, what color do you want, then?"

"I don't really care," said Jack. "Carly, what color do I look good in?"

"White," she answered promptly.

"White it is," said Yuji. He gave Jack a teasing grin. "As long as you don't mind working extra hard to keep it clean."

"Hmph. By the time I'm done, I'll have people to wash it for me,"

Yuji laughed. "That's the spirit! Hey, remember me when you're famous, won't you? I wouldn't mind a little extra business thrown my way."

"Show me this bike of yours first, and we'll see."

"Not until it's done! It's a surprise!"

Jack raised an eyebrow. "What if you get it done and I don't like it?"

"Oh, you'll love it. It's perfect for you," said Yuji. "Anyway, I'd better get back to work, before Saiga starts to wonder where I am. Have fun, you two!"

He bounded to his feet again and breezed out of the room.

"Whew!" said Carly. "Where does he get his energy?"

"I don't know," said Jack, "but if it gets this D-Wheel done fast, I won't complain."

"Me either. I'm curious too," Carly admitted.

Jack smiled a little at that. Curiosity wasn't a major part of his nature - he preferred to deal with what he already knew existed, and what he knew he could do to change it - but he was certain that Carly's natural inquisitiveness must be driving her out of her mind. If this project took very much longer, he wouldn't have been surprised to find her trying to slip into the garage dressed as a ninja.

"None of Yuji's students are around, are they?" he asked.

Carly shook her head. "They were here this morning while you were asleep. They're all gone now."

"Were you asleep too?"

"Couldn't," she said. "Too much work to do. I'm fine. You did all the real work... Are you sure you're okay? Even after...?"

"I'm fine," Jack assured her. "But I want to look at that video again later. I need to be prepared."

"You don't think it will happen again, do you?"

Jack considered. It would be so much easier to say that he was sure it was a fluke, and that he'd never have to worry about it again. He shook his head.

"It will," he said. "And when it does, I have to be ready. I let him break my concentration that time, and it was nearly a disaster. I will not let that happen again."

"You can do it! You totally nailed that guy last night - even with only nine cards left! I couldn't have done it."

"I didn't know you dueled," said Jack.

She blushed. "I mostly just play for fun. I'm really not very good... I want to get better. Seeing you... it's inspiring. I can't help but want to try my best."

Jack took a long look at her, considering.

"Let's go for a walk," he said.

By Carly's reaction, he might have asked her to dinner at the most exclusive place in town. Someday, he thought, that might be an option, but for now, the best they could do was take a stroll around Yuji's backyard. The front yard was declared too close to the road, and therefore off-limits, but there was enough privacy in the back that they could wander around on the driving course without being noticed. Jack liked it there. It was a good place to imagine what it would be like when he had a D-Wheel of his own. Carly ambled along beside him, and without thinking about it, he shortened his strides so that she could keep up with him more easily. He could almost hear her deciding whether or not to try to hold his hand, but she apparently decided it was best to keep her hands to herself.

_Women are strange,_ Jack decided. He had never thought of himself as being a particularly sexual being. He primarily thought of himself as a being who dueled, and it was faintly baffling to him that someone should see him as anything else.

"Jack, can I ask something?" she asked.

Jack felt a pang of misgiving, wondering if she'd somehow guessed what he was thinking. "You're always asking questions."

"Do you miss Satellite?"

He turned to look at her. That was so far from what he'd been expecting that he couldn't begin to think how to answer it.

"Why would I miss Satellite?" he replied.

"I don't know... I miss it a little," she said. "Maybe not the place, but... well, kind of that, too. But I had friends there. I've been so busy the last couple of days, I've barely had time to think of them... it's hard to believe we've only been here a few days. It feels like weeks."

"It does," he agreed. He walked in silence for a while. "I never thought I'd miss anything about it. I thought once I got out, I wouldn't want to think about it again. I definitely don't want to go back."

"But do you miss it?" she persisted.

"Not the island. Not the broken-down buildings and moldy beds and never having enough to eat," he said. "I don't miss that. But I keep thinking about things."

"Like what?"

"Nothing important. Things people did. The time Martha made me a crown out of cardboard and kitchen foil so I could be a king. The time Crow stole a case of beer from God-knows-where and we all made ourselves sick pretending to be grown up. And that old D-Wheel of Yusei's that broke down every other week. Such little things... they shouldn't matter."

"Those sound like important things to me," said Carly quietly.

He gave her a considering look. "You say you miss it. You were barely there long enough to get used to it."

"It doesn't take long. I'm adaptable," she said. "And it's not that I want to go back, but... I don't know. It doesn't seem fair that we're out here and they're still stuck back there. I wish there was something I could do for them."

"Hm," he said. "We've got enough trouble of our own to deal with."

"I guess you're right," said Carly, though she didn't sound convinced.

They walked in silence for a while. The only sounds were the fall of their footsteps, the chattering of birds, a distant noise of construction from Yuji's garage, and the metallic clink of Jack's jewelry. The sound seemed to catch Carly's attention, and she moved in closer to him for a better look.

"Where did you get that, anyway?" she asked, indicating his necklace. "I didn't see a lot of jewelry on the island..."

"These were my parents'," he said. "Their wedding bands. I kept them, after they died."

"Oh... Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't..."

"Don't bother. I'm used to it," said Jack. "I was too young to remember much. We were all living on the island - the place that became the island. When the disaster hit, they didn't die right away. Satellite was a bad place to live, then - worse than it is now, in some ways. Things weren't organized yet. There wasn't enough food or clean water. There was a lot of sickness. That's what took my parents. They did everything they could to get by - they sold most of what they had that didn't get destroyed in the quake, trying to scrape together enough money to survive. But they didn't sell these. I was too young to understand why, but when they finally died, I couldn't stand the idea that someone else would take these rings, so I kept them for myself."

Carly nodded slowly. "Rings are symbols of commitment because they never end. The circle just goes around and around forever."

"You know a lot of strange things," said Jack. "Anyway, now you know this, too. Happy?"

"Almost," said Carly. "Who's Martha?"

"She runs an orphanage," Jack explained. "She raised me - and Yusei and Crow, too. Her home was a safe place. There aren't a lot of doctors on Satellite, and not a lot of medicines, but she knows all the folk remedies. You could go to her if you had a fever or needed a wound stitched up. No one would dare hurt her or anyone in her care."

"Because if you did, she might not help you if you needed it," Carly guessed.

Jack nodded, gazing off into the distance. "I wonder if she knows I made it out... She's probably worrying about me."

"I guess there are a lot of good people on Satellite," said Carly. She frowned, her eyebrows knitting as she thought.

"You're plotting something," said Jack.

"I was just thinking," she said, "if I were a real reporter, on a newspaper, I'd write a big expose. I mean, everyone over here thinks that Satellite is full of people who'd knife them as soon as look at them, and that's not true at all. Some of the nicest people I've ever met live there, and they don't deserve it!"

"If you worked for a paper, you couldn't write a story like that," Jack pointed out. "The Director would shut it down, if your editor even let it run."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," said Carly. "Although... seeing as how I _don't_ work for a paper... I can say whatever I want, can't I?"

Jack looked doubtful. "Maybe..."

"Listen - we could really do something!" said Carly, warming to the subject. "You could tell people. We can't get into any more trouble with Security than we're already in. Let people know that the greatest duelist in the city was born and raised in Satellite, and you'll take on anyone who says otherwise."

"Do you think that would work?" Jack asked. "The idea here is to become popular..."

"The idea is to become _famous_," Carly corrected. "Nothing gets people's attention like a controversy. A talented new duelist is nice, but a talented duelist who stands for something is better. It'll get people talking. Half the city will want you banned from ever touching a card, and the other half will be rooting for you to win big and show everyone. Everyone will be talking about you. You could pull it off. You're good at working a crowd. I saw you in the underground - you've got a knack for it."

"If you're sure it would work..."

"Hey, I'm your media expert, right?" she said. "Trust me on this one."

Jack smiled slightly. "You got me this far..."

"We did it together," she said. "I couldn't have done all this alone... I really couldn't," she added thoughtfully. "Before I met you, I was just spinning my wheels and going nowhere. I couldn't get a job. I didn't have any plan. When I got this marker, I thought it was the worst thing that ever happened to me... but I was wrong. It's the _best_ thing that ever happened."

"Because you're going to be famous?"

"Well, there's that," she said, "but mostly because I got to meet you... and Saiga and Yuji, and all the people on Satellite. Just think, if I hadn't gotten myself arrested, we never would have met."

"And I still would have been at the theater, dreaming about things that would never happen," he said. "It was good that I met you."

Carly smiled and blushed as if that was the best compliment anyone anybody had ever given her. Perhaps it was, he mused. She didn't seem like the kind of girl who had gotten a lot of good breaks in life. If she had never spoken to him, he could have passed her in a crowd every day of his life without noticing her. Even now he kept getting lulled into thinking that she was just a foolish girl he could order around. Then something like last night would happen. She must have been terrified - he'd seen her shaking from twenty feet away - and yet...

"You say you want to improve your dueling?" he asked.

She nodded vigorously. "Do you think you could give me some pointers?"

"I wouldn't mind playing a few rounds. You can help me test my new deck construction. I had better give myself a handicap, though, or it will be too easy."

"I'm not _that_ bad!"

"Prove it."

Carly seized his hand. "Come on, then!"

She began dragging him towards the house. Jack consented to be dragged. In an odd way, he was almost looking forward to playing against her. It had been a long time since he'd dueled someone just because they both thought it might be fun. He smiled a little at that - one minute she was helping him find his purpose in life, and the next she was putting everything on hold to play games.

_Carly... How will you surprise me next?_

* * *

Evening was falling, and so was Yusei's energy level. He had been patrolling the streets all day, learning his way around the city. He had lived on Satellite all his life, and knew every nook and cranny of it. He was not prepared for how much larger this city was, or how complex its layout turned out to be. Even with the help of a map, he frequently found himself uncertain as to exactly where he was. How was he ever supposed to find four specific people in all this? Finding a needle in a haystack would be easier - at least he knew what a needle looked like, and needles didn't move around.

_I need another strategy,_ he decided. _Searching randomly isn't going to do it. If there was some way to draw them out..._

His mind went back to the experience he'd had when he'd touched the dragon carving. He'd certainly had a strong sense of Jack's presence then, but it hadn't been very useful. Still, if he could find a way to tap into that power in a more organized fashion... He wondered if it was worth the risk of experimenting with it some more. He wasn't sure what Goodwin would do to him if he caught Yusei snooping around in a place that was probably meant to be off-limits. On the other hand, he might have expected Yusei to find it eventually, since the security system had let him through...

In the midst of Yusei's ruminations, he realized that he was thirsty. He thought about this problem for several minutes before it dawned on him that all he needed to do was to stop somewhere and buy something to drink. The idea that he had limitless money to spend was still entirely new to him. He pulled his D-Wheel into the parking lot of a department store. The store was closed now, and the lot empty, but there was still a row of vending machines glowing enticingly along the front wall. Yusei dismounted and wandered over to contemplate his options, wondering if there was really that much difference between all those brands of soda, that there needed to be so many varieties to choose from. How did people get through the day when they had to make so many trivial decisions?

Before he could make up his mind, he heard the purr of an engine, and he felt a prickle of warning run down his spine. He turned to see a Security D-Wheel pull up behind him. The rider removed his helmet and grinned at him in a way Yusei did not like.

"So," said Ushio. "Fudo Yusei. Imagine meeting you here."

Yusei's eyes narrowed. "Have you been following me?"

"Now, why would you think that?" asked Ushio.

His expression was all the answer Yusei needed, and he tensed, automatically checking for escape routes. Unfortunately, the front of the store was perpendicular to the wall of another building without a parking lot, so that Yusei was now effectively cornered. His only way out would have to be around Ushio, who was now cracking his knuckles and grinning at Yusei as though calculating which bone he wanted to break first.

_Pay attention,_ his sixth sense warned him. _This is important._

_Pay attention to what?_ Yusei asked himself, but he couldn't come up with an answer.

"Looks like it's just you and me, boy," said Ushio. He slid off his bike and began closing in on Yusei, one purposeful step at a time.

"What do you want with me?" asked Yusei coolly. "Is it illegal to buy a soft drink in this part of town?"

"Oh, no, this isn't Security business," said Ushio. "This is _personal_."

Moving faster than seemed possible for a man his size, he made a lunge at Yusei, who managed to dodge just soon enough to avoid being struck by a fist. Yusei retaliated by aiming a quick jab at Ushio's midsection, striking hard and fast before darting away again. Ushio grunted, but did not seem particularly bothered. Yusei, however, had to shake out his suddenly aching fingers. He would have had only slightly worse results if he'd decided to punch the wall. He looked up at Ushio advancing on him and resigned himself to the fact that this was probably going to hurt.

The two of them went into a scuffle - not really trying to hurt each other now, but probing for weaknesses, testing each other's ability. On a level playing field, they would have been evenly matched - Yusei was faster and more agile than Ushio, but Ushio was stronger, heavier and more experienced. Unfortunately for Yusei, his back was against the wall, and Ushio was doing his best to drive him into the corner.

Yusei ducked under a punch and drove an uppercut at Ushio's chin, making the other man stagger backwards a few paces. Yusei attempted to dodge around him, but Ushio kicked at him, making him stumble. Yusei scrambled to keep his balance. If he were to fall, he knew Ushio would use his superior size and strength to keep him pinned down for as long as he cared to. He staggered backwards and managed to brace himself against the wall. Ushio lumbered towards him, blood trickling from a split lip.

"Dammit, hold still and take what's coming to you!" he snarled.

He took another swing at Yusei, who attempted to dodge but wasn't quite successful. Ushio's fist clipped him across the cheekbone. Yusei managed to drive his knee into Ushio's chest, forcing him backwards a little, and followed up with a flurry of punches. Ushio struck back, and Yusei became completely occupied with defending himself.

_This is personal. Why does he say that? What did I ever do to him?_ Yusei wondered. _I've barely even spoken to him... and I told him I'm not interested in Mikage. It must be something else..._

The only logical conclusion, he decided, was that it was personal - but not to him. Something else had to be eating at Ushio, and Yusei was just a convenient punching bag. Unfortunately, Yusei didn't have time to think about what the problem might be, because he was too busy trying not to get pounded to a pulp. Already he could feel what he suspected was the beginning of a black eye, and a variety of other aches where he hadn't gotten out of the way quite fast enough. Ushio didn't look much better. Blood had dried around his mouth, and his jacket had come askew, its buttons torn. He glared at Yusei with wild eyes and suddenly dove for him, swinging his fist like a wrecking ball.

Yusei prepared to meet him - but the attack was a feint. Yusei dodged and aimed a blow in Ushio's direction, realizing too late that he'd miscalculated, and that he was now moving directly _toward_ Ushio's other fist. Yusei's fist struck Ushio's chin a split-second before he felt a solid punch hit him in the stomach, and Yusei staggered backwards, unable to breathe. Stars spun before his eyes, and he could feel his knees going weak. He collapsed on the ground, struggling for air. Dimly, he registered the thud of another body hitting the pavement. For a moment, it was all Yusei could do to simply lie there and attempt to remember how to make his lungs work. At last, he managed to draw a shaky breath, and then another. At any moment, he expected to find that Ushio had regained his feet and was coming to flatten him, but everything remained quiet. Yusei turned a little to see that the officer was still laid out on the ground.

"Ow," he said. Ushio twitched a little, trying to get up, then changed his mind and laid back down. "Call it a draw?"

"Fine with me," Yusei replied.

"You're pretty good," Ushio admitted.

"So are you."

There was a pause. The night was quiet save for the sound of both of them catching their collective breath. Then: "You want to get a drink somewhere?"

"Sounds good," said Yusei.

He managed to roll over and push himself back onto his feet, and went to offer Ushio a hand up. Ushio looked at him suspiciously for a moment before accepting his hand and pulling himself to a kneeling position. Yusei watched him tensely, half-expecting a trick, but Ushio seemed to have settled down. He grimaced as he got to his feet, and ran his tongue over his teeth to make sure they were all there.

"I coulda beaten you," he said. "I had you on the ropes, didn't I?"

"You did," Yusei assured him. "A minute longer and you definitely would have had me."

Ushio straightened his jacket and wiped at his bloody lip.

"C'mon," he said. "Let's get a beer."

Yusei followed agreeably. He didn't wonder at Ushio's sudden change of mood. If anything, he was beginning to feel that he was back on familiar territory. The nature of the conflict was beginning to take shape in his mind.

_You aren't really angry at me, are you? You only needed to soothe your pride._ Yusei had fought plenty of scuffles like these, growing up with his two best friends. Jack had his regal pride, and Crow had a hair-trigger temper at times, so it was inevitable that they'd all end up fighting each other at some point. For a few minutes, they would batter at each other as if they truly meant to kill each other, and then by some unspoken agreement, they would drop everything and go back to being friends. That was a clue, too, and Yusei frowned a little as he followed Ushio down the street. It would be nice to know what this was really all about...

They reached a restaurant, an affably seedy little place filled with working-class people enjoying drinks and bar food. Ushio sauntered in with the confidence of one who had been there often and knew his way around. The bartender looked up as he entered.

"Hiya, Ushio," he said. "Rough night?"

"Something like that," Ushio agreed. "Can I get some drinks for me and my friend here?"

The bartender looked speculatively at Yusei. "He looks a little young. I'm going to have to see some ID..."

"Aw, it's all right. He's with me. I'll vouch for him," said Ushio.

"Well, if Security says he's legal, that's good enough for me," said the bartender. "What do you want?"

"The usual for me," said Ushio. "Yusei, what are you getting?"

Yusei ordered a beer and a sandwich. He ordinarily didn't care for beer, neither the taste nor the way it slowed his thoughts, but he knew the rules of a situation like this. You didn't christen a ship with chocolate milk, you didn't purify a temple with diet cola, and if you were trying to patch things up after a fight, you didn't say, "Oh, I'll just have water, thank you." There were certain rules of decorum you had to follow.

Decorum... that's what Yusei was finding so unsettling. Ushio wasn't following the right set of rules. Yusei had always believed that he was a reasonably well-mannered young man. He didn't interrupt when people were talking or chew with his mouth open, he said "please" and "thank you", he held doors open for people whose hands were full. Since coming to Neo Domino City, though, he'd come to realize that there were manners and there were _manners_. Goodwin had them. So did Mikage. They were never mystified as to which fork to use. They knew how to correctly address a servant. They had a thousand little mannerisms that were a mystery to Yusei, but which came as easily to them as breathing. On the other hand, they would have been lost on Satellite, where there was another set of rules in play. There, you had to know how to negotiate for safe passage through hostile territory, how to buy and sell contraband on the black market, who it was permissible to pick a fight with... and how to conduct yourself after a fistfight.

Ushio led Yusei outside, to where there was a patio with some tables and chairs. They were empty at that time of night, with most people preferring to eat indoors where it was warmer and brighter, but Ushio seemed to want some privacy. Yusei took a seat and sipped disinterestedly at his drink, watching Ushio. The other man didn't seem to be paying much attention; he was gazing off at the city lights, his expression distant.

"How old are you, anyway?" he asked at length.

Yusei wondered if Ushio was going to take his beer away from him, after all. "Eighteen."

"Huh," said Ushio. "Just a kid, then. This is all you've ever known, isn't it? The island and the city. I remember when it was different."

Yusei had the sense to stay quiet and listen.

"I was here before Yugi was a superstar, before Kaiba invented Duel Disks. You wouldn't believe it, but I went to school with 'em. Things sure have changed... sometimes I get the feeling I'm the only one who remembers how it was before. It's enough to make a guy feel old."

"What was different?" asked Yusei.

"Well, there wasn't any damned island, for one thing," said Ushio. "None of this putting some people there and leaving the rest here. Everybody was mixed together, like it or not."

"Don't you think it's better this way, though?" asked Yusei slyly.

Ushio's expression darkened. "Of course it's better this way! Anybody could see that. You wouldn't catch _me_ saying the old way was better."

_You protest too much,_ thought Yusei, hiding a smile. He thought he had solved the riddle that was Ushio. The man might wear a Security uniform, but he moved like a seasoned street brawler, and thought and spoke like a man who wasn't too concerned with the letter of the law - in short, he acted like a Satelliter. Yusei suspected that Ushio had come from a bad part of town. Perhaps if he'd been born a bit later, he would have been shipped to the island himself - and Ushio probably harbored that same suspicion. But everyone knew that people on Satellite were naturally inferior. Ushio's job involved dealing with the worst people Satellite had to offer, so he wouldn't have any proof to the contrary. So if Ushio simultaneously identified himself with the people of Satellite and yet wanted nothing to do with them...

_You weren't angry at me at all. It's yourself you wanted to attack. You wanted to prove you're better than us, even if the only way you know how to do it is to do the very thing you want to prove you're better than._

"Satellite is all right," said Yusei. "I want to go back, if I can."

Ushio looked at him suspiciously. "What would you want to do that for?"

"Because it's my home," said Yusei simply. "I never asked to come here. I just want to help my friends, and then go back where I came from."

"You really want to live on that dump?"

"It's home," Yusei repeated. "There are good people there. Learning to survive on that island gives them strength and courage. I'm proud to have grown up there." He met Ushio's gaze. "You would do well there, I think."

Ushio frowned a little as he worked through that, before apparently deciding that it was a compliment.

"You bet I would," he said.

"Probably better than I'm doing here," Yusei admitted.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" Ushio asked him. "Something about the Director taking you as his ward? What's _that_ all about?"

"I thought Mikage explained it to you," said Yusei. "I was born here, you know - in the Tops district. My father was the inventor who created the Momentum."

"You mean you're _not_ a Satelliter?"

Yusei shook his head. "I am. That's where I grew up, and that's where I belong. But I have roots here too. I have a claim on both sides."

"Wow," said Ushio. "That just makes my head hurt."

"The Director made me a promise, you know," said Yusei. "If I do this job for him, he says he's going to finish building the Daedalus Bridge, and make Satellite and Neo Domino one city again."

Ushio looked surprised. "And you believe him?"

"I don't know if I can trust him or not," said Yusei. "But I'm going to try anyway."

"Sounds like a lot of trouble to me," said Ushio.

"You have no idea how right you are," Yusei replied. "It would be better if it happened, though. For people like us, who fit in on both sides."

Ushio thought about that for a while.

"No more Satellite, huh? Well, it would probably mean a lot less trouble for me," he said. "Sure, I'll drink to that!"

Yusei smiled and raised his bottle in a silent toast, and they both drank.

"So," said Ushio, "that red D-Wheel is yours, huh?"

"I built it," said Yusei, nodding.

"Nice work. I wouldn't mind having one like it."

Yusei shook his head. "I designed that one to be light and fast. For you, I think I'd make something more powerful."

"You don't say," said Ushio. "What exactly have you got in mind?"

Yusei produced a pen from his pocket and began drawing rapidly on the back of a napkin. Ushio leaned closer for a better look.

"I'm thinking something a bit like this..."

* * *

"Crow... What time is it?"

Crow turned away from the window to look at Kiryu.

"It's late," he said. "You should sleep."

Kiryu shook his head stubbornly. "It can't be late. It's not seven yet. They always serve dinner at seven."

"We're not in jail anymore," said Crow, striving to keep his voice level. "They're not going to serve dinner. And it's late. Look, the moon is out."

"But they _always_ serve dinner at seven."

Crow stifled the urge to scream, reminding himself for the umpteenth time that it wouldn't do either of them any good. Over the last few hours, Crow had been forced to conclude that Kiryu was somewhere beyond the reach of common sense. Even if he managed at this moment to persuade him that it wasn't dinnertime and no one was going to feed them, odds were that in five minutes, Kiryu would have forgotten the whole conversation and start asking again. It was maddening. One minute, he would be totally in the moment, seemingly as clear and rational as he'd ever been, and Crow would start hoping that maybe the trauma of his imprisonment was starting to fade, and that soon his old friend would be back for good. The next minute, Kiryu would slide away again, and believe he was back on Satellite, or in prison once again, or off in a fantasy world of his own devising. Sometimes he started talking to people who weren't there, or would run to hide from an invisible enemy. He laughed wildly for no reason, or else wanted to cling to Crow and reassure him over and over that Crow was his only friend. It didn't make Crow feel any better.

_This sucks. This really, really sucks._

He had not eaten any real food since the day of the escape, nor had he slept - he couldn't, not with worrying about what would happen if Kiryu wandered off or if Security got too close. He had been worrying constantly about everything that could go wrong, and his nerves were worn to a frazzle. He was also starting to realize just what he'd let himself in for. If he ever got caught by Security, he wouldn't be facing just another few days in a cell. He would be lucky if they just gave him a life sentence. If that guard Kiryu shot had died, then a death penalty would be unavoidable. No one would care if it wasn't Crow who had pulled the trigger; he would be guilty by association, and that was enough in Neo Domino, especially for a Satellite native with a long string of convictions behind him.

Even if he wasn't caught, he would be on the run for the rest of his life. He'd probably never get to go home again. He'd never see his kids again. Those poor kids... what would they do without him? Would they even know what happened to him? And then there was his friend the prison guard, the one who had let him out of his cell. The man had been genuinely kind to him. He had been a real friend to Crow in a place where he had no other friends, and Crow had betrayed him. Maybe he would lose his job now. He'd probably get in big trouble when it leaked out that he had been letting prisoners out of their cells without authorization. Hadn't he mentioned to Crow at some point that he had a wife and kids of his own? What was he going to do with this kind of black mark on his record? His life was probably pretty well screwed up, too, all because he'd felt sorry for Crow and Crow had taken advantage of that kindness.

_And why? Because Kiryu wanted to die on this side of the wall instead of in there? Is that a good enough reason for all this? But... I couldn't just leave him to die..._

Crow felt his throat tighten. He was tired and hungry and frustrated. He wanted more than anything to just turn around and walk away. He wanted to turn Kiryu over to Yusei or Security or _somebody_ and let them deal with it. He wished that they had just executed Kiryu without telling him about it so he wouldn't be in this mess now. He felt like a terrible person for thinking that way, but he couldn't help himself.

"This is all your fault!" he shouted at Kiryu. "Everything would have been fine if you hadn't gotten the stupid idea of blowing up Security in the first place! You're the one who told me to do this! You're the one who made our team break up! You're the one who shot that guard! This is all your fucking fault and I hate it! And I'm really starting to hate you!"

Kiryu continued to stare blandly off into space, his lips moving as he carried on some internal conversation. Then his eyes seemed to focus, and he turned to face Crow inquisitively.

"What time is it?" he asked.

"Argh! You...! You know what, forget it. Just forget it. You aren't listening anyway," said Crow. "I'm gonna go find some food. Maybe if I eat something I'll be able to think what to do. You _stay here_, okay?"

Kiryu nodded. Crow wasn't sure if he was actually listening, or if he had already slipped off into his dream world. Crow was in no mood to worry about it anyway. He shuffled out of the warehouse and into the street. The night air was cool and helped calm his nerves some, and he took deep breaths of it as he walked along.

_Now, where can I get something to eat?_

Technically, he _was_ a thief, but he liked to think that he was a thief with some morals. The idea of waltzing into a convenience store and filching a few things, or worse yet, picking a few pockets, didn't sit well with him. It was different when he was stealing from Security, who as far as he was concerned had taken more from him and Satellite in general than they were entitled to. He never felt guilty about taking from them, but taking from an average hard-working person rubbed him the wrong way.

_A restaurant,_ he thought. There would be leftovers there. As strange as it seemed to him, he knew there were people who ordered more than they could possibly eat and just threw the rest away to rot. If he watched and waited, he could probably pick up enough to make a meal. At this point, he was almost ready to start scouring dumpsters.

He walked a while before catching sight of a building with a patio and tables in back, and he smiled, thinking that he was in luck. There were a couple of people eating out there. With any luck, he could pick up some food from them and save himself the trouble of figuring out how to go inside without the marks on his face being noticed. He crept a bit closer, using the shadows and the ornamental shrubbery around the patio for cover. As he did so, he realized that one of the diners looked awfully familiar.

Actually, he realized, they both did. One of them, he recognized as a Security officer who hung around on Satellite. Crow didn't know his name, but he knew him as a man with a reputation for having a short temper and a willingness to use force. The other, though...

_Yusei? How'd he get here?_

He didn't look like he was under arrest, that was for sure. He seemed perfectly at ease. Crow couldn't catch every word of the conversation, but he could get that it had to do with motors and axles and various other things related to the construction of D-Wheels. The officer was listening intently, nodding and smiling and putting in the occasional enthusiastic comment. The two of them looked like they were having fun.

_Since when is Yusei on good terms with Security officers?_ Crow wondered. _Forget that - since when is he allowed off the island?_

Even as he was thinking this, Yusei and his companion appeared to wrap up whatever they were talking about. They began to stand.

"Where are you heading now? Back to the Director's place?" the officer asked.

Yusei nodded. "I've done enough looking around for one day."

"Wish I could decide my own hours."

Yusei laughed a little. "It's more like I'm working for Goodwin all the time."

"That's got to be rough. One of these days, I'm gonna show that guy a thing or two. He needs to be taken down a peg."

"Well, he's the Director."

"He's a pain in the ass. And he doesn't treat Mikage right. If I ever get a chance, I'm going to break his face in, you just watch."

"I'll look forward to it," said Yusei, still smiling, "but I think I'd better finish this job for him first."

The two of them wandered away, out of earshot. Crow stayed frozen where he was, mind whirling.

_Either I'm as crazy as Kiryu is, or Yusei just said he's working for the Director, and staying at the Director's house. What the hell?_

He had to share this news with someone. He began to sprint back to his hiding place, anxious to tell Kiryu what he'd just seen and heard. Then he stopped and doubled back. He climbed over the patio fence, helped himself to a half-eaten sandwich and some leftover fries, scooping them all into some clean napkins and stuffing the packet under his vest. This news was momentous, but not so much that he was going to forget about getting something to eat.

A few minutes later, he returned to find that Kiryu hadn't moved from where he'd left him. He was sitting in a corner, staring off into space with a faraway smile, as though dreaming about something wonderful. His eyes focused on Crow when he entered, and for a moment he seemed to be his old self again.

"Where have you been?" he asked. "You were gone a long time."

"I went to get food," said Crow. He pulled out the packet of food and began dividing it between the two of them. Kiryu's face lit up when he saw the food.

"You think of everything," he said, as he tore into his share.

"Yeah, but this isn't the only thing I found," said Crow. "You won't believe this, but Yusei was out there."

Kiryu went rigid. "Yusei? You saw Yusei? He's _here?_ But that's impossible - he's supposed to be on Satellite..."

"That's what I thought, too, but it was definitely him. I couldn't mistake him for someone else!" said Crow. He was discovering that after a couple of days with no food, even cold french fries were delicious. "He was just kicking back at some restaurant, talking about D-Wheels. With a Security officer, if you believe that! They were chatting like they were old friends."

"He would," said Kiryu darkly.

Crow shrugged; he was getting used to Kiryu saying things that didn't make a lot of sense.

"Yeah," he went on. "And that's not all. I found out where Yusei's staying, so we can finally go find him!"

Kiryu lit up as if all his dreams had come true. "Really? Where is he? Can we go now?"

"Well, it might take a little bit of planning," Crow admitted. "See, I heard him say that he's staying in the Director's mansion..."

"I knew it!" Kiryu exclaimed. "That traitor! I just knew it would come to this..."

Crow gave him a puzzled look. "You wanna run that by me again?"

"Don't you get it?" asked Kiryu. "He's on _their_ side."

"Whose?"

"Security's!" Kiryu insisted. "He's betrayed us. He's betrayed Satellite. He betrayed _me_."

"I don't believe that," said Crow. "Whatever Yusei's doing, it's gotta be for a good reason. Yusei would never betray anybody."

Kiryu laughed. It was a dry, raspy sound that went on much too long.

"You really believe that?" he asked. "Crow, didn't you know?"

Crow blinked. "Know what?"

"What Yusei did to me."

"How could he do anything to you? He was your best friend," said Crow. "Nobody cared more about you than he did..."

"That's what I thought, too," said Kiryu, glaring at the ground. "I trusted him. I thought he was the one person I could trust. But that night, when Security came for me... I swear it, Crow, I didn't kill anyone! I was trying to escape, and the man on the D-Wheel was chasing me, and he lost control and fell. I never touched him. Yusei saw it all, but he still held me back until Security got there. He let them think I'd done it. No - he turned me in! I saw them thanking him! It's his fault. If he hadn't stopped me, I wouldn't have had to go to jail. All of this is his fault. And now he's here, rubbing elbows with Security, living in the Director's mansion! Do you think that's a coincidence?"

"I don't know..."

"Yusei's not like us, Crow. He's not a real Satelliter. He was born here. His father was some famous scientist. He's probably got connections here."

"Then why did he live on Satellite all that time?" Crow protested.

Kiryu shrugged. "Who knows? But you can't deny, there's something funny going on here. They wouldn't let some ordinary person go live in the Director's home for no reason."

Crow frowned and said nothing. It _did_ seem strange. The Director had always been strongly opposed to Satellite and everyone on it. He'd done nothing but mistreat them for years. And Yusei had seemed on good terms with that Security officer, and Crow knew the officer was a Satellite regular. Had he and Yusei known each other long? Why hadn't Crow ever heard of it before? And how was it possible that Yusei, who had been closer to Kiryu than any of the others, could have turned on him so cruelly? It didn't match up with the Yusei Crow knew, but he couldn't deny the evidence of his eyes. He shook his head, trying to clear it.

"You're jumping to conclusions," he said. "Look, let's just find Yusei and talk to him. He'll explain everything."

"Oh, I'll talk to him, all right," said Kiryu. He grinned, showing too many teeth. "I want to tell him, in detail, just what he put me through. I want him to know what I suffered - what he _made_ me suffer. I want him to feel that pain and helplessness..."

"Hey, let's not get carried away!" Crow protested. "We don't even know if he's..."

"_He sent me to die!_" Kiryu shouted. "I'll never forgive him. I'm going to find him and pay him back. I'm going to do just what he tried to do to me..."

Crow stared. "You don't mean..."

"I don't care what happens to me afterwards," said Kiryu. "If they kill me for it, fine. But I'm taking Yusei down first. He deserves it." Suddenly his expression softened. "I'm glad I at least have _someone_ I can trust. If it weren't for you, I don't know what I would do."

"Right," said Crow, his voice sounding strangled. He pushed the remains of his sandwich away, finding himself suddenly without appetite.

Kiryu wanted to kill Yusei. That had been his plan all along - he had said from the beginning that his one desire was to see Yusei again before he died, and now Crow realized that what he'd meant. And Crow had been the one to make it possible. Crow had thrown away everything to help Kiryu, and this was what it had come to.

_What the hell did I do?_

**To Be Continued...**


	15. Aki Gets a Boy's Number

**Aki Gets a Boy's Number**

**By: SilvorMoon**

When Mikage stepped out into the garden the next morning, she was met by an interesting sight. One of the patio tables on the verandah was occupied by two men, a coffee service, and a partially empty platter of doughnuts. Yusei and Ushio were sitting there, enjoying a morning meal and chatting with each other as if they'd been friends for life. More striking, in Mikage's mind, was the fact that both of them were showing signs of injury. Yusei had what looked suspiciously like a black eye, and Ushio was likewise sporting a few bruises. The two of them seemed to be talking about cards, comparing their decks without a care in the world.

"Did you two get in a fight?" she asked as she approached.

"Huh?" said Ushio. He glanced at Yusei, and a look of understanding passed between them. "No, of course not! We weren't in a fight."

"Definitely not," Yusei agreed.

"We were just, you know, roughhousing a little," said Ushio, "and it maybe got a little out of hand, but we weren't _fighting_."

Yusei smiled, eyes glinting as though he were enjoying a private joke. "Think of it as a male bonding ritual."

"Right. Well, then," said Mikage.

_Men are so strange,_ she told herself.

"Come sit with us, Mikage!" said Ushio. "There's still plenty of coffee left."

She only hesitated for a moment. "All right. I was looking for you, anyway."

As she stepped closer to the table, Ushio bounded to his feet to pull out a chair for her. She gave him a smile as she took her place at the table. Yusei passed her an empty coffee cup so she could pour herself a drink. While he did that, she unfolded a portable computer on the table and began brining up files.

"What have you got?" asked Ushio, leaning over for a better look.

"Some information on the Arcadia Movement," she answered. "I couldn't find as much as I would have liked..." She glanced at Yusei. "I'm not sure I should be talking about this with you around. It's classified information."

"It'll be all right," said Ushio. "He already knows most of it, doesn't he?"

Mikage hadn't looked at it quite like that. She regarded Yusei thoughtfully. "That's right, you knew Jack Atlus."

"I think I still know him," said Yusei. "Unless something has happened to him?"

"As far as we know, he's in good health," she assured him. "I'm not really supposed to talk about him, you understand..."

"Because you don't want the people in the city to know that someone escaped from Satellite," Yusei finished.

"Yes," said Mikage, glad that she hadn't had to say it herself. As long as he already knew, she felt there was no harm in telling him about it. "We've been trying to find him, discreetly, before any trouble can come of it."

"I see," said Yusei, looking thoughtful. "A backup plan."

"Backup?" Mikage asked.

Yusei nodded. "Goodwin has me looking for him, too. Jack, and some other people."

"I wonder why he didn't tell me," said Mikage, frowning. "He's been acting so strange, lately. He wouldn't let me have his files on the Arcadia Movement, either. It's almost as though he didn't _want_ us to find anything."

"I'm sure he wants us to find something," said Yusei grimly. "But Jack is my friend, and I want to find him regardless of what anyone wants."

"Do you think we should be working together?" Mikage mused. "It might be more efficient."

"I'm willing to share information, if I find anything," said Yusei.

"Wouldn't hurt to have someone else on our side," said Ushio.

Mikage nodded slowly. It went against the letter of what Goodwin had instructed her to do, but she was beginning to feel the strain of obeying all his rules when he kept making it so difficult for her to follow his instructions. Besides, she trusted Yusei. Any man who, when offered nearly limitless wealth, asked only for ice cream and a tool box couldn't be all bad.

"We would be more effective that way," she admitted. "I doubt the Director will mind how it gets done as long as it's all done in the end.. You won't tell him, will you?"

"I won't," Yusei promised. "So, what was that you were saying about an Arcadia Movement?"

"You mean you haven't heard of it? No, I suppose you haven't," said Mikage. "I don't suppose they have much to do with Satellite. The Arcadia Movement is a group that supposedly looks after the interests of psychic duelists."

"Are there such things?" Yusei wondered.

"There are rumors," said Ushio darkly.

"I don't know if there _are_ any," Mikage admitted, "but I know there are people who _claim_ to be. They have a large building devoted entirely to their use in the heart of the city. There's no knowing what they really get up to in there."

"And you think they might have something to do with Jack?" asked Yusei.

"Possibly. From what we can gather, he's been traveling in the company of a young woman," Mikage explained.

Yusei nodded. "Carly."

"You know her?" asked Mikage.

"I've never met her," Yusei replied, "but my friends told me about her. A reporter, they said. Or at least, she wanted to be, before she got arrested."

"That sounds right," said Mikage. It would certainly explain why the first thing the woman had done on achieving freedom was to start making a video blog. "Anyway, there have been confirmed sightings of her wandering around wearing a hood and mask, and there are reports of a person matching that description coming and going from the Arcadia building."

"And you think it might be her," said Yusei. "It's possible... I remember someone saying something about how she told fortunes."

"Fortunes?" Mikage repeated doubtfully. "Well, it would explain the screenname..."

"You mean we've got some kind of psychic on our hands?" asked Ushio dubiously. "I guess that would be a good reason why they'd know we were coming before we got to them, but..."

"I'm not jumping to any conclusions," said Mikage. "All I want to determine right now is whether or not the girl people have reported seeing is the same one who escaped from the island. Once we've determined that, we can decide where to go from there. The problem is that the Director is blocking me. I asked him for the files on the Arcadia Movement, and he ordered me to stay out of it."

"Why would he do that?" Ushio asked.

"I don't know," Mikage admitted, "but I'm not letting that stop me from finishing what I started, so I looked up everything I could find."

She turned her computer screen around so that the other two could see. The image on the computer showed a rather handsome, well-dressed man with a shock of red hair and eyes the color of green tea.

"This is the founder of the organization," said Mikage. "He goes by the name of Divine, but his real name, according to our records, is Ambrose George Parker."

"I'd change my name, too, if my name was Ambrose," Ushio remarked. "Not that 'Divine' is much better. Sounds like a porn star to me."

"Ushio!" Mikage exclaimed.

"Sorry, sorry," said Ushio, flushing. "Forget I said anything."

Mikage pursed her lips primly, then shrugged. "I guess it _is_ a silly name. Anyway, he owns one of the largest buildings in the downtown area. There's no sign that he has any legitimate profession, and no clear indication of where he's getting the money to pay for all this. Somehow, he's housing a large group of people, feeding them, clothing them, and who knows what else, with no visible means of doing so."

"And he's psychic?" asked Yusei.

"He claims to be," said Mikage. "I suppose you can get money somehow if you're a psychic, but I don't really believe it. There must be _something_ going on there, or why wouldn't the Director want us to know about it?"

"Do you think he's in on it?" asked Ushio.

"Don't ask me," said Mikage. "The place has an unsavory reputation... There are a lot of records of accidents happening there. Nothing that would indicate that any of them were more than accidents, but... it's just that it happens so often, and it gets cleared up so fast every time. Someone dies, someone investigates it, and it gets declared an accident. Sometimes all that happens on the same day. It's thought provoking, don't you think?"

Ushio frowned. "Maybe the Director doesn't want _you_ to have an accident. I sure don't."

"That's possible," Yusei agreed, "but somehow, I'm not convinced he's looking out for our welfare. But if it will make life easier for you, I can go to the Arcadia building and look around."

"Are you sure?" asked Mikage. "It might be dangerous..."

"I can manage," said Yusei. "Satellite was dangerous, too. And the Director hasn't told me to stay away from that place, so I can't get in any trouble if I go there. He explicitly gave me permission to go wherever in the city I need to go. I'll have a look around, and tell you what I find."

"That would be wonderful," said Mikage. "Thank you very much."

"It's not a problem," Yusei assured her. "I want to find Jack even more than you do."

"Speaking of him," said Mikage, "I've got something else interesting to show you. Ushio, have you been following that blog since you showed it to me?"

Ushio made a face. "Totally slipped my mind. I should have been keeping up with that..."

"It's all right. You've been busy. Besides, the interesting bit only just went up this morning," said Mikage. "There's a new video up now, and it makes it clear that he's not even bothering to hide his identity anymore. He's telling all challengers that he's from Satellite, and he intends to prove he's as good as anyone on the mainland."

"Oh, great," said Ushio, making a face. "More trouble for us! That's just what the Director didn't want."

"Nothing we can do about it now," said Mikage. "The comments are interesting. A lot of people are outraged. Some of them don't believe he's from Satellite, and say he's just trying to stir up attention. And some of them are on his side, and say anyone who can duel that well deserves the chance to do it."

"Typical Jack," Yusei remarked. "He always has to be the center of attention."

"We're going to have to put a stop to this thing, fast," said Ushio. "Otherwise the Director is going to have our hides... or at least our badges."

"I hope not," said Mikage.

"I'll do what I can for you," said Yusei. "At least now I know where I can start looking." He paused a moment. "Mikage?"

"Yes, Yusei?"

"Could you play that video for me?" he asked. "I know it sounds strange, but I'd like to see with my own eyes that he's all right."

"Oh!" she said. "Yes, of course! I understand completely."

She tilted the screen so he could get a better view, and all of them leaned in to watch.

Meanwhile, not very far away, Director Goodwin was going about his daily business. At least, he was pretending to - Jaeger was trotting along in front of him with a stack of papers, reading off the agenda for the day, but Goodwin wasn't listening. He had stopped walking and begun staring out the window. Jaeger kept walking and talking for a while before realizing the Director wasn't following him any longer.

"Sir?" he inquired. "Is something wrong?"

Goodwin didn't answer, but continued gazing out at the patio. He could see the occupied table there - one tall, rugged man; one pretty young woman; and Yusei, looking so much like his father that it gave Goodwin a chill every time he looked at him. For a moment, the garden and the patio faded away, and Goodwin imagined he could see his brother with Dr. Fudo and Mrs. Fudo sitting together over coffee, discussing some new hypothesis or laying out plans for an experiment. Goodwin felt he had sat through a thousand of those conversations. They had seemed like something that would go on happening forever, until they were all old and gray. Now he looked out at the table with its single empty chair and felt as though all he would have to do was to go and sit there, and everything would be exactly the way it had been before. Then the vision passed, and all he saw was Mikage, Yusei, and Ushio. They would not welcome him. They were probably happier that he was well away from them. There was no one in this city who would be happy if he joined them.

"I'm going for a walk," he said aloud.

"But... but sir, you still need to..."

"Later," said Goodwin, cutting Jaeger off with a glare. "I am going for a walk."

"But you can't just..." Jaeger began, and then stopped with a sigh. "I mean, enjoy your walk, Director."

Goodwin went out. He called up his driver and had the man deliver him to a certain part of town. From there, he walked, wending his way towards the ocean. A few people stopped to stare and whisper to each other as he passed them, but no one tried to stop him or speak to him. Who would dare bother the Director when the watchful eye of Security was everywhere? He passed unmolested all the way to his destination, an isolated bit of shoreline where there stood an unfinished construction of rusty steel beams and rivets, arching out over the restless water. He stood by it a long while, staring up at it.

_I should have just torn it down,_ he thought ruefully. _Too late now, I suppose. A wasted effort all around..._

Irresistibly, his thoughts were drawn back to the old days, the bad times just after the disaster. When it had first happened, he had scoured the rubble where the lab had once been, desperately seeking any sign of his brother, but there was of course nothing to be found. Rudger had hidden himself too well from the sight of mortal eyes, and not even Rex could find him. Rex finally admitted to himself that there was nothing more he could do but follow his brother's last wishes.

And so he built a bridge. Perhaps he'd known it was hopeless even from the start, but what else was there to do? He had put it together knowing that it would never ben completed, and when Security finally came to put a stop to him, he had driven his D-Wheel over the edge with something like relief. He had tried to follow his brother's last request, and now, perhaps, he had failed, and could lay down the burden. A part of him would be glad to die and get it all over with. Then perhaps he would be with Rudger again...

He hit the water with a tremendous splash, and the cold waves engulfed him. Survival instinct took over, and he thrashed blindly, attempting to force his way a surface he could no longer see. The waves caught him and threw him against a submerged rock, and pain filled his world. He tried to scream, but there was no air, only icy dark water. He blacked out.

When he awoke again, he was lying on a table in an unfamiliar dark room. He opened his eyes and looked around, trying to discern where he was. Machines hummed somewhere out of sight, a deep thrum that made everything vibrate gently. A brief inspection revealed that his clothes were dry - not only dry, but clean, as if someone had taken them to be washed and pressed while he was out. Even frays and tears had been mended. There was a vague ache somewhere near his left elbow, dull but persistent. He sat up and tried to get a better look.

In the place where there had once been an arm, there was now a construction of metal built into the shape of one. He tried moving it, and was surprised to find that the new hand and fingers obeyed his will. For a few moments, he experimented with flexing the wrist, splaying the fingers or curling them into a fist. They moved effortlessly, without so much as the sound of a gear or motor to reveal that they were mechanical. There was a smaller table next to the one he was lying on, covered with a variety of tools and spare parts, perhaps the very ones used to build this intriguing new appendage. He extended his new hand and picked up a wrench, a large heavy one. He squeezed it, and it bent and broke like a stick of candy.

"I wouldn't advise you to move too much yet."

Rex looked up. Where there had been no one, there was now an unfamiliar man, dressed entirely in white. He was watching with an expression of intense, almost predatory interest.

"Who are you?" Rex demanded.

"I am a member of the Yliasters," the man replied. "Also, the one who fished you out of the water and brought you here."

"You made this?" asked Rex, indicating his new arm.

"Let it suffice to say that our organization supplied it," the man replied. "A gift, if you like. A gesture of goodwill from us to you."

Rex raised an eyebrow. "What's the catch?"

"No catch," the man assured him. "You are free to go on your way. I personally would suggest resting a bit longer while your arm heals, but you are of course the best one to judge your physical condition."

"Of course," said Rex. "So you're saying you did this out of the goodness of your heart?"

"It was, as I said, a goodwill gesture," the man replied. "We are interested in offering you a place in our organization."

Rex's eyes narrowed. "Why?"

"For a variety of reasons," the man replied, "We tried to recruit your brother to our cause, but it unfortunately didn't go as well as we expected. We are attempting to rectify the situation. We believe you could be of help to us. You want to see your brother again, don't you?"

"That isn't possible," said Rex.

"It could be," the man replied. "The powers of the Yliasters are greater than you can imagine."

"My brother is dead," said Rex. "No one can change that. All I can do for him now is to carry out his final wishes."

"Are you sure?"

Rex hesitated.

"He passed his power on to you," the man continued. "The power of a Signer. You could use it to defeat him, true... but what if you used that power for another purpose?"

"What purpose is that?"

"Think of it this way: right now, you see only two sides. There are the Dark Signers, who would destroy this world and make it part of the underworld. Then there are the Signers, who would preserve the world as it is. But there is also the Yliasters, who have a different goal: to create a _new_ world. A better one. One where tragedies such as yours wouldn't have to happen. Perhaps you would like to help?"

Rex thought about it. "What's in it for me?"

"We will give you this city," the man replied promptly. "You will be the most powerful man in the world, and run things as you see fit. All you have to do is make sure that the Dark Signers don't win their bid for power... but that the Signers don't, either. Do you understand?"

"I think I do," Rex answered.

"Then what will you choose?"

Rex considered only for a moment. When he had flown off the bridge, he had been prepared to lose his life - the only thing he had left, at that point. Even if this man was completely untrustworthy, which was a distinct possibility... why did it matter?

"All right," he said. "Count me in."

"Very good," the man replied. "And now, I think you had better rest a bit longer, so you will be fully healed by the time you begin your new job. Close your eyes..."

Rex missed what happened next, but suddenly he was sinking down into unconsciousness again.

But his new friend kept his word. When he awoke, it was in a hotel room in Neo Domino City, where he learned that his stay had been mysteriously paid for in advance. A few days later, he learned that the previous Director had been caught in a scandal involving some creative accounting practices that had ended with a great deal of money going into his pockets instead of into the city's rebuilding funds, and he had been summarily ejected from his post. A new Director had to be appointed in a hurry to fill the void.

By the next week, Rex had been comfortably settled into a new job.

But before then, there had been nothing else to do, so he had passed the time by working on a bridge...

"It is good work," said a soft voice somewhere nearby.

Goodwin jumped, staring about in an undignified show of surprise. His gaze landed on a misty figure standing in the shadow of the unfinished bridge.

"You again," said Goodwin. "What are you doing here? I'm not even asleep. It's daylight. Ghosts don't come out in daylight."

"I thought you didn't believe in ghosts," said Dr. Fudo, smiling. "But you've been thinking about me a great deal lately. You've convinced yourself that I'm real. Ergo, you can see me - you think, therefore, I am."

Goodwin glared at him. "That joke was unworthy of you."

"Sorry, sorry," said Dr. Fudo. "I've had a lot of serious things on my mind, so I'll take what levity I can get."

"Wasn't being blown sky-high enough levity for you?"

"I think you had better leave the jokes to me. I don't like your sense of humor," said Dr. Fudo. His attention strayed back to the bridge. "Some of your other senses still seem to be working, though."

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Goodwin.

"You built the bridge, didn't you?" said Dr. Fudo. "On this side of the water. Even after you'd escaped Satellite and left all that behind, you still started building a bridge on this side of the water."

"It was a useless dream," said Goodwin stiffly. "I put all such foolishness behind me when I became Director."

"Became," said Dr. Fudo. "You say it as though it happened to you without you choosing it."

"What difference does it make how it happened?" Goodwin demanded. "I have responsibilities, now. I have to do what is best for the greatest number of people, and that does not include dealing with Satellite."

"And yet, you kept the bridge up."

"Humph," said Goodwin, turning away. "Tearing it down would be a waste of tax dollars."

He started to walk away, but apparently figments of his imagination weren't something he could walk away from. Dr. Fudo fell into step alongside him.

"You never should have taken the directorship," said Dr. Fudo. "It's made you forget what you really wanted."

"I know what I want," said Goodwin, "and that is to be rid of you."

Dr. Fudo smiled sadly. "And yet, when you left your house..."

Goodwin turned on him with a glare.

"What do you want me to say?" he demanded. "That I'm going to build the bridge and throw open the gates of the city and turn Satellite into a paradise? Would that make you happy? Have you forgotten what is going to happen there?"

"It is going to happen," said Dr. Fudo seriously. "When it does, do you think a little thing like a bit of water is going to stop a god?"

"I'm doing the best I can," Goodwin snapped.

"No. You've pushed the work onto Yusei. And he will do it, if he can, because that's the kind of person he is."

"You say, 'if he can.' Are you having doubts about your boy's abilities?"

Dr. Fudo smiled sadly. "As a father, I have no doubts. But as a scientist, I have to admit the possibility of failure. Being dead doesn't mean that I can see the future."

"Then stop acting like you know everything," Goodwin snapped.

"I do have the advantage of a slightly wider point of view," said Dr. Fudo. "Rex. There's still time to change your plans. Yusei has a good heart - he would be willing to give you a chance. Your assistant and her helper want to believe in you, because they believe in the institution you stand for. You could have them as your friends."

"What makes you think that's what I want?"

"You were thinking about it," said Dr. Fudo. "I'm all in your mind, remember?"

Goodwin glared. "You're wasting my time. Listen to me. There was a time when I foolishly thought that as Director, I could do enough good to make a difference, but now I realize I was only postponing the inevitable. It is not enough to merely change a city. I must change the world."

Dr. Fudo shook his head. "That's not a job for one man alone."

"That is why I must do what I am going to do," Goodwin replied. "Your time is past. Stop interfering and let me be."

"As you wish," said Dr. Fudo. He sighed, and Goodwin felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle as a cold wind rushed past him. "But don't think I've given up on you yet. As they say, where there's life, there's hope."

Goodwin started to say something about life and Dr. Fudo's lack thereof, but there was another gust of wind, and Dr. Fudo's image vanished. Goodwin stared a moment at the empty space in front of him, and told himself that he was glad the man was gone. Then he turned on his heel and marched off, forcing himself to ignore the impression of a pair of ghostly eyes watching him go.

* * *

There was a commotion.

Aki looked up from the book she'd been reading and wondered what was going on. The Arcadia building was generally a quiet place, full of people meditating and studying, and anyone who broke the peace outside of a few strictly controlled areas like the duel arena would have gotten dirty looks at the very least. Curious, she left the library and headed downstairs to see what all the fuss was about.

The source of the racket appeared to be a young man. Like the eye of a storm, he stood calmly in the middle of the lobby while various members of the movement clustered around him, shouting at him and trying to convince him to go away. He observed them all as though they were something mildly interesting, and he was considering studying their habits to record for posterity.

"What is going on?" Aki demanded.

People backed off. Everyone knew she was the most powerful of the group, and Divine's favorite besides. They were more than happy to let her handle the situation if she wanted to. Aki walked closer, trying to keep her expression smooth. She knew she could intimidate most people with her frosty manner and half-tamed powers, but this man didn't look like he would let anything short of a full-scale apocalypse unnerve him. Up close, she noticed that he had the bluest eyes she'd ever seen. She got the feeling they could see straight through her.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded. "This is no place for you. Go away."

"I need information," he said calmly.

"What do you think we are, a psychic hotline?" Aki snapped. "Read a horoscope and leave us alone."

"Not until I get the information I'm looking for." The young man produced an ID card - a Security ID, identifying him as Fudo Yusei. "I don't think the answers I want are in a horoscope."

Aki stared for a moment, thinking, _He can't be a Security officer. He's just a boy..._ All right, so he was about the same age she was, but she didn't think they let teenagers become Security officers. He'd have to be crazy to try to pass off a fake, though, especially in a place like this. But most people would have to be crazy to try to come into the Arcadia building uninvited anyway.

"Go back to what you're doing, everyone," Aki said. "I'll handle this."

People wandered away, casting curious glances over their shoulders as they went. Aki caught the stranger by the arm and all but dragged him out of the foyer, and he followed her without complaint. She led him into the first empty room she found and turned on him with an icy glare.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

"My name is Fudo Yusei. I'm on a mission from the Director," the stranger replied.

Aki narrowed her eyes. "The Director doesn't send people here. He has an agreement with our leader - we don't bother him, and he doesn't bother us."

"I'm not here to bother anyone. I'm looking for someone," Yusei said. "If she's not here, I'll leave."

"And if she is here?" Aki persisted.

"Then I'll have more questions, but let's start at the beginning," said Yusei. "Who are you?"

"That's none of your business," she snapped. She was in no mood to be charitable to this pushy stranger who had the nerve to invade her home and start snooping around, and to look at her calmly that way as though she were... _ordinary_.

Far from being put off by her frosty manner, the young man smiled slightly.

"I can't call you 'hey you'," he said. "It would be rude."

Aki felt herself growing flustered. "Izayoi, then. Izayoi Aki."

"Miss Izayoi. And what do you do here?"

"This is a training center for psychic duelists. We work here to develop our skills," Aki replied. She gave him a pointed look and added, "_Without_ interference from outsiders."

"So I hear," said Yusei.

Aki wondered if he was going to ask her to prove herself. She half-hoped that he would. His calmness annoyed her; she wanted to do something that would frighten him, to wipe that unruffled expression off his face. She wanted to see terror in his eyes. She wanted him to stop treating her as if she were just like everyone else. Didn't he realize who he was talking to? He looked at her speculatively for a moment, and she was certain he was going to ask her for a demonstration, but then he shrugged and seemed to change his mind.

"Do you notice a lot of what goes on around here?" he asked instead.

Aki deflated slightly. "Some."

"Then perhaps you can help me."

Yusei reached into his pocket and took out a cell phone. He tapped a few buttons on it before turning the screen to her, showing a photo of a young woman.

"Have you seen this person before?" Yusei asked.

Aki was about to say something cutting, but she hesitated, distracted by the picture. Now that she really looked at it, there was something familiar about that face. She frowned, trying to remember.

"Who is she?" she asked.

"Her name is Nagisa Carly. She escaped from Satellite with another person a few days ago," Yusei explained. "The person she's traveling with is a friend of mine, and I'm trying to find him. There have been reports that someone matching her description was seen around here."

"She's not one of us," said Aki. "Although... yes, I've seen her before."

"When?"

"A few days ago. She followed me, but I told her to leave me alone," said Aki. "I haven't seen her since."

"I see," said Yusei, looking disappointed. "Is there anyone else who might have seen her?"

"I doubt it. She never even came inside the building."

Yusei shrugged. "It was worth a try. Thank you for your help."

"Was that all you wanted to know?" asked Aki. So typical, she told herself - here he was in a building full of people who could work wonders he'd probably never dreamed of, and he wasn't even curious.

"That's all," said Yusei. "I suppose I'd better get going."

"I'll show you the way out," said Aki.

He raised an eyebrow - they had only gone a few yards from the main entrance, and it would be almost impossible for him to not find his way out, but Aki didn't trust him. She was not going to give him an opportunity to sneak off somewhere and get into things that were none of his business. She glared at him until he got the idea, and he began walking towards the door with Aki following him. A few people were hanging around in the lobby, perhaps hoping something interesting was going to happen, but Yusei ignored them and none of them dared approach Aki when she was looking tense.

They reached the front door, and Aki shooed Yusei outside. He paused on the stairs and looked back at her.

"Thank you for helping me," he said. "I appreciate it."

"I didn't do anything," she replied.

"You answered my questions and saved me from wasting my time," said Yusei.

"You're wasting _my_ time," said Aki. "Look for your friend somewhere else."

"I'll do that," said Yusei. "It was good meeting you, Miss Izayoi."

Aki felt anger bubble up. "Don't lie to me."

"What makes you think I'm lying?" he asked.

"You _are_ lying. Why would you be glad to meet me? And don't talk to me about being _helpful_. Do you even understand who you're talking to?"

"Why don't you tell me?" he asked.

Aki shook her head, unable to believe that anyone could be so dense. "This is the Arcadia Movement. It's a refuge for psychic duelists. Don't you understand that? This is where we go because we don't belong anywhere else. Everyone hates us. They're afraid of us. No one wants anyone to do with us. You could never understand what it's like to have people look at you like you're a freak, afraid to meet your eyes, being rejected by your own family..."

Aki trailed off, her throat blocked off by an impending bout of tears. She would not give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry...

Yusei regarded her quietly for a moment.

"Do you know who I am?" he asked.

"No, and I don't care!" she snapped.

"I am from Satellite," he said. "I don't have to do anything to be hated and feared. I am an outcast simply because I exist. And I am not afraid of you."

Aki stared, lost for words. How could he be from Satellite? It was illegal for one of them to even step off the island. Automatically, her mind skipped to all the horror stories she'd heard about the island and its residents, and she felt a chill as she realized she'd been alone in a room with one of them. He might have done anything to her...

_I don't have to do anything to be hated and feared..._

"You're lying," she said again. "You can't be from Satellite. And if you are, you must have faked that Security ID. Either way, you're lying."

"Things are changing," he said simply.

Aki might have come up with a retort for this, but she was distracted by a sudden jolt, as though a burst of electricity had run up her arm. At the same time, she heard Yusei gasp and saw him clutch at his own arm.

"What's going on?" she demanded.

"This is bad," said Yusei. "We had better get out of here."

"But why? Tell me what's happening!"

He might have answered, but before he could, they were interrupted by the sound of mocking laughter. Aki looked up to see a man striding towards them. He was wearing a long black jacket, which flapped around him as he walked. His face seemed to be tattooed - there were twin red marks running down from his eyes and curving around his lips like the tracks of tears, and a red blot on his chin. There was something odd about his eyes. As he drew nearer, Aki could see that they were black - completely black, with blue irises. Looking into them gave her a chill.

"I thought I smelled dragons," he said. "Two of them! This must be my lucky day."

Yusei's eyes widened. "You mean she's...?"

The dark man laughed. "You mean you don't even know your own allies? You really are a pack of fools."

"Are you the one who attacked Jack?" Yusei demanded.

"Who, me? I don't care about him," the man replied. "If it comes to that, I don't care much about you, but I know who you are. Fudo Yusei. Izayoi Aki. The ones with the marks of the Crimson Dragon."

"Who do you think you are?" Aki snapped. "I'm warning you, if you think you can hurt me..."

"Try it," the man said. "I'm Demak, one of the Dark Signers... not that you need to know that."

Yusei's eyes narrowed. "Do you intend to duel us, then?"

"You? No," Demak replied. "Her, maybe. What do you say, little girl? Think you can take me on?"

"Don't do it," said Yusei. "It's not safe."

"Stay out of this," said Demak. "I'm talking to the girl."

"I'm not afraid of you," said Aki. She glared at Yusei. "And I don't need your help!"

Demak grinned wolfishly. "That's right, show me what you've got!"

"More than you can deal with," said Aki. "Come inside and I'll prove it to you."

She marched into the building to retrieve her Duel Disk. At the moment, she didn't care who this stranger was or what he wanted. She was confused and angry and she wanted someone to take it out on. Dueling would make her feel better.

_And what if something goes wrong, like it did last time?_

She pushed that thought out of her head. At the moment, she really didn't care if she hurt this Demak - or Yusei, for that matter, if he insisted on interfering.

_I'll teach him to look down on me!_

The other people in the lobby, sensing trouble, cleared out in a hurry. Aki took a Duel Disk from a niche in the wall and inserted her deck into it, while Demak produced a Disk from under the folds of his coat and snapped it in place. Yusei stood a distance away, watching the proceedings unfold with a grave expression. She got the feeling he was planning how to salvage the situation if something went wrong.

"As the challenged party, I go first," she said.

"Be my guest," said Demak.

She drew her first hand and selected a card. "I summon Violet Witch! I'll set two cards face down and end my turn."

"Is that all you've got? Pathetic," said Demak. "I'll show you how it's really done!"

As he spoke, the light level in the room seemed to fall. Aki blinked. It wasn't just her imagination. The room really was growing darker, and a strange blue light was snaking across the floor, forming a circle of blue flame. Aki tried to back away, but it moved too quickly. She found herself surrounded by cold fire.

"What is this?" she demanded.

"Just a little something to make the game more interesting," said Demark with a grin. "Now, we play. I summon Magician's Ape! With him in play, I can send one card from my hand to my graveyard to take control of your Violet Witch!"

"No!" Aki exclaimed, but was too late. The Ape brandished his wand, and her Violet Witch obediently leapt across the field to join him.

"Now," Demark continued, "attack the girl!"

Both monsters blasted at Aki. She screamed, feeling as though she'd been set on fire.

_This isn't normal... This isn't even like psychic dueling. What is this power?_

"Izayoi!" Yusei shouted. "Are you all right?"

"I'm... fine," she panted. "Stay out of this."

Demak slotted some face-downs into his Disk. "Turn end. Come on, now - I thought you were going to challenge me."

"I'm not done yet," said Aki. She forced herself to rally and draw her next card. "I summon Lord Poison and have him attack Violet Witch!"

"You're attacking your own monster?" asked Demark with a smirk. "You are a heartless one, aren't you?"

"Wait and see," she said. "When Violet Witch is destroyed in battle, I add one monster with a defense of less than fifteen hundred to my hand."

She rifled through her deck and withdrew the Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis.

_If I can get this on the field on my next turn..._

"I end my turn," she said.

"I expected more from you," said Demak. "I don't see why that woman is so interested in you..."

"What woman?" Aki asked.

"Hmph. You think I'd tell you that?" Demak replied. "It won't matter anyway. I'll finish you off here and now so you'll never have to deal with her..."

"Oh, will you?"

Aki stared. Through the flickering blue flames, she could just make out the silhouette of a woman. Demak flinched.

"What do you think you are doing?" the woman demanded. She spoke each word as though chipping them off a block of ice.

"Just what you did to me!" Demak snapped back. "You've been muscling in on my target. Fair is fair."

"We've been over this already," the woman replied. "Call this off, _now_. Our time hasn't come yet. You're overstepping your boundaries, Demak."

"You'd like to think so, wouldn't you?" he retorted. "We're here to destroy Signers, and that's what I'm doing."

"Call it off, before I make you."

"I'd like to see you try it."

Aki felt a shift in the power around her, and a moment later, the flames flickered and bent, inching warily toward the dark woman. While she was still wondering what was going on, Yusei rushed forward and grabbed her arm.

"Come on!" he told her, dragging her away.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"Anywhere but here!" he said. "Which way is the exit?"

Aki was in no mood to argue about the matter. She led him through the halls of the building at a run, dodging confused passers-by and skidding around corners. They didn't stop until they reached the building's back door. Aki led him out into a parking garage, and there they stopped to catch their breath. Once Aki had collected herself somewhat, she turned on Yusei.

"What was that?" she asked.

"I'm not completely sure," Yusei admitted. "They're called the Dark Signers... and they said you were one of the ones with a dragon's birthmark."

He gave her a knowing look, and she felt her temper rising again.

"You mean this?" she said.

She pushed the sleeve of her glove down, baring the mark of a claw on her arm. She saw Yusei's eyes light up, and she wondered fleetingly just what his purpose here had really been.

"This mark appeared the same day my powers did," she said. "It's brought me nothing but trouble. If you have one like it, I don't want anything to do with you."

"You may not be able to help it," said Yusei. "Those Dark Signers will be back. We were lucky that they distracted each other this time. Who knows what will happen if they come again?"

"I'll be fine," said Aki. "I don't need your help."

"That may be true," said Yusei, "but I need yours. If these Dark Signers aren't stopped, they could destroy the city. Only the ones with the dragon's birthmarks can stop them. Without your help, millions of people could die."

"Then let them die," said Aki. "They don't want me. I don't want them."

"What about you? Do you think they'll let you live?"

Aki lowered her eyes. "Divine will protect me."

"Who is Divine?"

"My teacher," Aki explained. "He's always protected me, when no one else would. I can trust him. Much more than I can trust you."

"I'm sure you can trust him," said Yusei, "but he isn't going to be strong enough to deal with this. He may need you to save him."

"I don't have to listen to this," said Aki. "You should look after yourself, and stay out of my business."

Yusei sighed. "I'm sorry you feel that way. If you change your mind..."

He produced a notepad and wrote something on it, and then passed the page to her. Aki stared at it a moment as though she thought it might have something contagious on it, but at last she took it and tucked it in her pocket.

"Take care of yourself," he said seriously.

"I told you - Divine will take care of me," she said, and swept back inside.

_What a strange boy,_ she thought. Her mind was reeling. Those people, the Dark Signers, and that business about the dragon's birthmark... it was too much to comprehend all at once. She was having a hard time convincing herself that she'd really seen what she thought she'd seen. It was easier to ponder the conundrum that was Fudo Yusei. He hadn't been afraid or intimidated by her at all. He'd actually seemed worried for her welfare. Her hand strayed to the pocket where she'd tucked his note. She hadn't even read it. Now she took it out and studied it. It said, "Call me if you ever need me," followed by a number. She felt an odd little flutter inside as she realized that this was the first time in her life a boy had actually invited her to call him.

_He doesn't like you. He only wants to use you,_ she told herself. _You know Divine is the only one you can trust._

She returned to the lobby with some trepidation, but she found the room empty of everyone but Divine himself. He was pacing around the middle of the floor, contemplating a set of scorch marks on the rug.

"This is going to cost a fortune to fix," he was muttering. "I'll have to have the whole thing replaced..."

"Divine?" she said.

He looked up at her with relief. "Aki, you're all right. I was concerned."

"What happened?" she asked. "There were these people..."

"I told them to go away," said Divine. "Don't worry about them, Aki. You are mine. I won't let them hurt you."

Aki felt herself relaxing. She should have known that Divine would have everything well in hand.

"I'm sorry I missed that," she said.

"You didn't miss anything good," said Divine. "Some people just have no self-control, but they calmed down once I talked to them a bit. They won't be bothering you again. Now, why don't you go find something fun to do? Take a break and relax for a while - you're still looking a bit rattled."

"Thank you. I'll do that," she said.

She returned to her room in a much better frame of mind. Yusei had it all wrong. Divine obviously had everything well under control.

* * *

A moment before Aki had arrived, Divine had been certain he had everything under control. He had been at his desk, contentedly going over some negotiations he'd been wrapping up. So far, his day had been going well. Once he'd gotten used to the new presence in the back of his mind, he found that he rather liked having a god tagging a long with him. It whispered advice to him while he worked - nothing dramatic or forceful, just a subtle drawing of his attention to little details that might have escaped him, a gentle suggestion that some particular tactic might pay off. Most of the time they were so quiet that he had to stop and think a moment to realize that he hadn't thought of it himself. So far, though, everything the voice had told him had worked. He'd had two longstanding issues with his buyers resolve themselves almost instantly after applying the voice's advice. Divine wasn't usually one to take other people's guidance, but he reasoned that if something worked in his favor, why fight it?

He was in the midst of writing a letter to one of his contacts when he felt a tingle run up his arm, and he looked down to see a purplish shape was glowing through the fabric of his jacket. He contemplated for a moment, using his sixth sense to feel for danger. He encountered a surge of energies strong enough to make him rock back in his chair.

A split second later, he was on his feet and heading for the elevator. He arrived downstairs and marched into the lobby to see a dark-clad man and a statuesque beauty of a woman dueling with each other within a ring of blue flames.

_Allies,_ the voice in his head suggested.

Divine frowned slightly. If this was how his allies behaved, he suspected he might be better off without them.

"All right, that's enough," he shouted. "Both of you stop it this instant!"

Such was the command in his voice that they actually stopped to look at him.

"Who the hell are you?" the dark man demanded.

"One of your comrades," Divine answered. "Though the way you two are behaving, I'm not sure I want to be. Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't we supposed to be fighting Signers, as opposed to each other?"

Both strangers glared at him a moment. The woman was the first to relent, slipping her deck from he Duel Disk and tucking it out of sight. The man followed suit a beat after her, and the flames vanished. With the light level returned to normal, Divine realized that the woman he was facing was none other than Misty Lola, the world renowned model. Interesting.

"That's better," he said. "Now, why don't we discuss this matter like civilized beings? Or at least, find some way to resolve the problem without drawing so much attention?"

"Forget it," the man snapped. "I don't need all you ganging up on me. I'm leaving."

He turned on his heel, his jacket swirling dramatically around him, and stalked out the door. Misty watched him go, shaking her head, before turning back to Divine.

"I apologize for his behavior," she said.

"Think nothing of it," Divine replied. "I don't suppose you'd mind telling me just what the bone of contention between you is?"

She scowled. "The problem is that he doesn't know how to cooperate with anyone. I've never met anyone so self-centered."

"I'm familiar with the type," said Divine sympathetically. "I take it, then, that he feels that you are stepping on his toes in some way?"

"He has this obsession with the youngest of the Signers," Misty explained. "No matter how many times I tell him that I have no interest in the child, he continues to believe that I'm trying to steal his mark. So now he is trying to move into my territory as revenge."

"How petty," Divine murmured. "Out of curiosity, what _is_ your territory?"

The lines of her face hardened. "The Black Rose Witch, who took my brother from me."

Divine was quiet for a moment. The voice in the back of his head whispered like wind through leaves.

"So that is what brought you here," he said carefully. "I understand completely. She is a dangerous woman."

"You know her?" asked Misty, giving him an appraising look.

_She doesn't know who I am,_ he realized. He had to suppress a smile. Of course she didn't. She was a model, not a private investigator - she was expected to spend less time thinking and more time simply standing and looking pretty. She had plainly focused her attention solely on Aki, when taking a wider view of the matter would have taught her that she wasn't even aiming for the right target.

On the other hand, since he knew that the right target was _him_ he was happy enough not to correct her.

"We all know of her here," he said. "She is the most powerful of us all. The leader here lets her do as she pleases, no matter who it hurts, because he only cares about making use of her power. I should know. She's the one who killed me."

"I see," said Misty. "So she is your target as well."

Divine hesitated a moment before answering that question. His deal with the god, as he understood it, was that he would eventually be asked to kill Aki. He had no misgivings about that, but the possibility that someone else might kill her first bothered him. He wouldn't want to lose out on immortality because someone else beat him to the punch.

"Suffice to say that I would be willing to cooperate with you," he said. "I would like to see her punished for taking my life, obviously, but it hardly matters to me who does the job as long as it gets done. I would rather not face her head-on, you understand - I know her powers are far greater than mine. But I'm willing to help you deal with her."

"What sort of help do you have in mind?" she asked, eyeing him skeptically.

"I've been watching her for a while," Divine said. "I know for a fact that she has an... obsession, really, with the man who runs this organization. In her own twisted world, she believes that he is in love with her. If she were ever to find out the truth..."

Misty raised her eyebrow. "Which is?"

"He's just as afraid of her as everyone else," Divine replied. "He has been doing experiments on her in secret, trying to find some way of taming her powers. I believe the records of these experiments are hidden in a secret room somewhere on the top floor. I haven't seen it myself, of course, since no one but the leader has access to that area, but it seems like the likely place. If you were to show her proof of his activities, she would likely be devastated."

"I see," said Misty.

She was thoughtful for a moment, and Divine mentally patted himself on the back. He was certain she would never be able to slip into his office and find his hidden file room, but she could certainly waste a lot of time figuring out how she might accomplish such a feat. Hopefully he could stall her long enough that by the time she solved the matter, he would have already completed his own mission. What became of her after that was her own problem.

"Thank you for the advice," she said. "I will take it under consideration."

"Glad to be of service," he said, with one of his courtly bows. "We must be supportive of each other in this endeavor, don't you think?"

"Perhaps so," she agreed. "It's refreshing to finally meet someone who knows how to cooperate."

Divine smiled reassuringly. "I consider it important to keep my mind on the end result, and not get caught up in petty details."

And in this case, he thought, the end result would be that no one was going to touch Aki but him.

**To Be Continued...**


	16. Crow Calls the Cops

****

Crow Calls the Cops

****

By: SilvorMoon

Saiga was doing what he did best. He was, at the moment, sitting cross-legged on the floor of Yuji's garage, with a computer set up in front of him. Various wires ran from the computer to parts of an unfinished D-Wheel. There wasn't much left to do with it now - just a few more adjustments and a little superficial bodywork, and it would be ready to prowl the streets. Saiga was in the process of running a few diagnostics tests, checking to make certain that everything was in perfect condition. He studied the numbers that were flashing across his screen, and made a few notes on a piece of scrap paper.

As he was doing so, Yuji came ambling in.

"What's the verdict?" he asked.

"Needs a couple of minor tweaks for optimum performance," said Saiga, passing him the list. "Nothing you can't handle, though."

Yuji took the list and gave it a professional examination. "This should be no problem. I can take care of these after breakfast, and then we'll finish making it look pretty. It'll be done by nightfall. Jack will like that."

"I'm pretty pleased with the idea myself," said Saiga. "It's been a long time, hasn't it, since we did something like this together?"

"Too long," said Yuji, "but we're going to do lots more like this, aren't we? Well, not exactly like this, but..."

Saiga couldn't help but smile. "I know what you mean. Jack would flay us alive if we copied his bike."

"Ha, yeah! He's got a lot of pride," said Yuji, laughing, "but he's all right. He's just a grouch, like you."

"Humph. I'm not a grouch," said Saiga, in his best mock-grouch tones, but he couldn't keep it up. He joined in Yuji's laughter, and wondered how he had gotten by without him. What had made him think that going through life without Yuji had ever been a good idea? He felt as though he'd forgotten how to laugh when Yuji hadn't been around.

_I don't care if I never win another duel. If I stay here and fix bikes with Yuji for the rest of my life, that will be fine with me._

"Hey," said Yuji, a light of mischief coming into his eyes, "You want to take her for a spin?"

"What, Jack's D-Wheel?" asked Saiga.

"Sure. I mean, we have to give it a road test to make sure it's working properly. Diagnostics can only do so much," said Yuji, "and I don't trust myself to handle it with this bum leg, so it's going to have to be you. It doesn't really count if it's not done yet, right?"

Saiga smiled slowly. "You could have a point..."

"Great!" said Yuji, grabbing his helmet. "Let's do it quick before they wake up."

He opened the garage door, and then scampered over to where his Talaria was parked. Saiga found his own helmet and carefully mounted the untried white D-Wheel. He turned the ignition, and the engine came to life with a reassuring hum. Encouraged, he let it gently roll off the lift it was resting on and go trundling towards the door. Once it was safely outside, Saiga tapped the accelerator, and it leapt forwards as though it had been waiting for an opportunity to really cut loose. He caught up to Yuji with ease, and then passed him. Yuji laughed and began trying to keep pace with him, and the two of them took off around the track.

It was wonderful. The D-Wheel responded to his slightest touch, turning and accelerating as though it were reading his mind. The wind whipped around him as he picked up speed. Yuji kept pace with him, weaving expertly through and around obstacles - he must have known the course as well as he knew the way from his room to the breakfast table. The two of them drove side by side, leaving the rest of the world behind them.

_When was the last time I drove just for fun?_

After Yuji's accident, Saiga had lost the heart to drive his D-Wheel, even for the most ordinary tasks. It had been gathering dust in the back of his shop, until he'd driven it here. Even before then, he hadn't really been enjoying himself, not while he was worried about whether or not to join the pro leagues. Now he was rediscovering the joy of the wind in his face and the pavement rolling away beneath him.

_I never should have left you behind, Yuji. I won't make that mistake twice. We were meant to be a team, no matter what._

Saiga would have happily continued the cruise all morning, but he didn't like to think what Jack would do to him if he caught Saiga joyriding on his D-Wheel, so he reluctantly pulled off of the track. Yuji parked next to him and removed his helmet.

"How does it handle?" he asked.

"Like a dream. You do half-decent work," said Saiga with a grin.

"You're not half-bad, yourself," Yuji replied. "Maybe I'll drop the tutoring business and go into custom D-Wheels full-time. What do you say? I bet we could make some waves!"

"I'll think about it," said Saiga. "Come on. Let's put this thing back where it belongs and see if anyone else is awake."

Yuji brightened immediately. "All right! I hope Carly gets up in time to make breakfast. She's a good cook."

"Maybe you should marry her and settle down," Saiga teased. "She's not a bad-looking girl."

Yuji laughed. "She's not my type."

They went back inside, and were pleased to see that Carly was indeed awake. She was whirling around the kitchen, singing herself in an uncertain key as she whipped up pancakes and fried sausages. Her laptop was sitting on a safe countertop, well away from the cooking action, and her latest video was playing in the background. She seemed to be enjoying listening to herself talk. As Yuji and Saiga came in, she all but pounced on them.

"Look, look!" she said. "Look at all my comments! People are going crazy! It's like we're famous!"

"Congratulations!" said Saiga. "So, how are those pancakes coming along?"

Carly stuck her tongue out at him. "Just for that, I'm feeding yours to Yuji. He's nicer than you."

Yuji grinned, accepting the compliment.

"So, where's your boyfriend?" he asked. "Doesn't he want any breakfast?"

"Oh, um," said Carly, blushing a brilliant red. "Jack's in the shower."

"Really? You looked?" asked Yuji innocently.

"That's it! Neither of you are getting breakfast!" Carly declared.

At that moment, Jack entered the kitchen, his hair still damp from his shower. He looked around with a raised eyebrow.

"Who's not getting breakfast?" he asked.

"Jack, these guys are picking on me!" she complained. "Make them stop!"

"Stop picking on Carly," he said automatically. "How is the D-Wheel coming along?"

"Fantastic," Yuji enthused. "If nothing goes wrong, you can start using it tonight. Won't that be great? We'll have to have a christening party."

"A christening party? For a D-Wheel?" Saiga asked, amused.

"Why not? A good bike needs a name," Yuji insisted. "Hey, I know - I've got to pick up a couple of little things to finish up anyway, so I'll get some refreshments. We'll make a proper party of it."

"We had a party when we got here," said Carly.

"Well, we'll have another one! You can't have too many," said Yuji.

Saiga laughed. "I think you'd get tired of them after a while."

"Yeah, maybe so," Yuji admitted, "but not for a long time."

Despite Carly's threats, there were enough pancakes for everyone, and plenty of sausages to go around, so they all settled down to enjoy their morning meal. The men tucked in with gusto, but Carly was too hyper to worry about a little thing like food. She kept glancing back at the video loop that was running on her computer, playing and replaying Jack's latest victories and her own commentary. Every once in a while, she would refresh the screen to see if she'd gotten any new comments, and relay the best of them to her companions, until Jack finally ordered her to turn the thing off and sit still. She did as she was told, but after a moment or two, she got bored again and took out her cards, shuffling through them restlessly. Yuji leaned over for a better look.

"That's a different sort of a deck," he said.

"It's a fortune-telling deck," said Carly. "Jack's teaching me to play, but I'm better with fortunes."

"Really? That's awesome!" said Yuji. "Tell my fortune, then! What's my future?"

Carly obediently shuffled her deck and drew a card. She stared at it a moment, her expression turning distant, as if she were seeing something far beyond just the card and the table with the remains of breakfast on it. Then she seemed to come back to herself with a little shake of her head.

"Fortune-Telling Witch An-chan. It says you might have bad luck," she said. "Beware of falling objects."

Yuji laughed. "Heh, guess I'd better check all the light fixtures, then!"

"Keep a close eye on Saiga," said Jack, with a hint of a smile. "He might drop a wrench on you while you're working on that D-Wheel."

"Wouldn't dream of it," said Saiga. He poured himself a fresh cup of coffee and reached for a newspaper that was lying on the table, then put it aside. "Humph. This one is yesterday's."

"I haven't gotten the mail yet," Yuji admitted.

Carly looked interested. "I still haven't read it yet. I've been so busy drumming up publicity for the blog..."

"It's all yours," said Saiga, passing it to her.

Carly seized on the paper with the avidity of a professional newshound and began skimming through the news of the previous day.

"I guess there wouldn't be anything in here about us yet," she said, as she turned pages.

Something caught Jack's eye, and he reached out to grab at the paper. Carly tried to pull it away from him.

"Go back!" he ordered. "I saw something."

"You could just ask," said Carly, but she passed the paper to him. Jack leafed through it until he found what he was looking for: a small article topped by a pair of inch-high photos. One was a young man with spiky hair and a cocky grin; the other looked paler and more careworn. Even in the grainy photo, the intensity of his eyes couldn't be mistaken. The headline read, "_Prison Escapees Slain in Shootout._" Jack stared, his face going pale.

"Jack?" asked Yuji. "Is something wrong?"

"It isn't true..." he said, shaking his head. "_It isn't true!_"

"Did you know those guys?" asked Saiga, leaning over for a better look.

Carly stared at the upside-down page.

"Kiryu Kiyosuke and Crow Hogan," she read. "Crow Hogan... Your friend's name was Crow, wasn't it?"

Jack's fist slammed onto the table. "They're not dead! I won't believe it!"

"Jack..." said Yuji, his eyes dark with sympathy.

Carly pulled the paper away from Jack and studied it intently, pushing her glasses up her nose as she examined the article.

"This is terrible..." she murmured.

"What do you care?" Jack snapped. "You never met them."

"I care because they're you're friends," said Carly, "but that's not what I'm talking about. I mean this _article_ is terrible. Who wrote this thing? There's no by-line."

"This is what you worry about?" asked Saiga, rolling his eyes.

Carly paid no notice. "Look at this! It doesn't give any information at all. Who was involved? What time of day did it happen? Were they pronounced dead at the scene, or were they sent to a hospital? What about eyewitnesses? Why aren't there any comments from anyone? There are no details to anything. It's almost like...like..."

"It never happened?" Yuji suggested.

"That's it!" said Jack, seizing on the idea. "They're too smart to let themselves get caught. This is a cover-up!"

"Do you really think it's possible?" asked Yuji.

Saiga shrugged. "We know Security isn't honest. Look how well they covered up losing these two. If Carly says there's something screwy with that article, then I, for one, believe her."

Looking calmer now, Jack retrieved his paper and studied it more carefully.

"You're right," he said. "This doesn't sound like them. Crow isn't the sort to resort to violence if he doesn't have to. He wouldn't just attack someone for no reason. Someone is lying. Which means they're probably still on the loose somewhere."

"Do you think we could find them?" asked Carly.

Jack shook his head. "They can look after themselves. I'm not even sure I _want_ to find them." He gave Carly a serious look. "If you're ever out in the city and you meet these two... If you meet Crow alone, go ahead and talk to him. Tell him where we are, even. He's the kind you can trust. But if Kiryu is with him, or if it's Kiryu alone, run away. Don't talk to him. Don't even get near him. He's not safe to be around."

"But... isn't he your friend?" asked Carly.

"That was a long time ago," said Jack. "Things are different now."

"I'm missing something," said Yuji. "Fill me in?"

Jack sighed. "A couple of years ago, a few friends and I - Yusei, Crow, Kiryu, and me - formed a gang to clean up Satellite. We broke up all the other gangs on the island. We made it a better place to live, for a while. But Kiryu got out of control and decided to take on Security, and he bombed the Security headquarters, and they sent men to collect him, and he killed an officer and got thrown in jail. He's not sane."

"Duly noted," said Saiga. "We'll keep our eyes peeled. In the meantime..."

Jack regarded him narrowly. "Yes?"

"In the meantime, one of us should do the dishes, since Carly was nice enough to do the cooking," said Saiga.

"You do it," said Jack, giving him a look of sheer annoyance. He got up and swept out of the room. Carly glared at Saiga.

"Now you've gone and made him mad," she complained.

"He'll get over it," said Saiga. He got to his feet. "Just let him cool off. In the meantime, I'll clean up."

"You don't have to do that..."

"Go on. You shouldn't have to do all the work around here," said Saiga. "Besides, I'm done with my part of the bike, for now. I have nothing better to do."

Yuji nodded. "I'm going to go out and finish the final touch-ups. You can help, if you want. I could use someone to fetch and carry for me so I don't have to keep standing up."

"That sounds interesting," said Carly. "All right, I'll help! At least until Jack calms down."

They walked off together, leaving Saiga alone in the kitchen with the dirty dishes. He looked around at the mess. Carly might have been a good cook, but she was not a neat one, and the chaos she'd wrought was considerable. He had a feeling he was probably going to be there a while. He shrugged and set about tackling the mess.

_At least I'm never bored,_ he thought. _It's been nothing but drama, lately... Good thing, too. I was going stagnant, stuck in that workshop all day._

He found himself smiling as he began piling dishes into the dishwasher. Doing a few chores around the house was a small price to pay, he thought, for being surrounded by friends.

_I wouldn't change this for anything in the world._

* * *

Kiryu was sleeping. Crow had been watching him for some time now, mostly to convince himself that Kiryu could still do something as innocent as sleep. Crow had almost forgotten what sleeping felt like.

_Something's gotta give._

He considered Kiryu's motionless form for a moment. He looked so peaceful in sleep, it was hard to believe that he was capable of murderous rages, but Crow had ceased to doubt. He'd spent most of the day watching him pace and rant at the air about how he'd been mistreated by Security and betrayed by Yusei, and what he'd do to all of them if he got the chance. It had taken all of Crow's wiles to keep him from rushing off to do something drastic.

One thing he was sure of: he couldn't let Kiryu go through with his plans. No matter what Yusei had done or what he was doing, he didn't deserve to be carved up into pieces by someone he probably still believed was his friend. Crow considered for a moment, then crept closer to Kiryu's side.

"Kiryu?" he said softly. "Are you awake?"

No response. Crow waited a moment, and then another. He let out his breath in a rush. Kiryu was plainly dead to the world. Crow rummaged around and came up with a scrap of paper, and scrawled a quick note on it saying that he was going out to look for food, and that he would be back soon, emphasizing that Kiryu should stay put. He tucked the note under Kiryu's hand where he would hopefully notice it, and then slipped out of the building as quietly as he could.

Going out in daylight was risky, but there was no help for it. Crow did his best to keep out of sight, keeping to the side streets where he could and avoiding meeting anyone's gaze. A few people stared at him suspiciously anyway; while it wasn't unheard of for a marked criminal to be released back to the streets, they were still rare enough to attract attention and suspicion. Crow walked as quickly as he could, and hoped he looked purposeful instead of furtive.

He moved deeper and deeper into the city, passing office buildings and apartments bigger than anything he'd ever seen before. He paused outside a department store, looking in at a display of toys. He ached to bring a few home to his kids. He wondered what they were doing now, and if they were safe, and if they missed him.

_I'll be home soon. I promise!_

He kept going. He had only a vague idea where the Director's manor was, having caught glimpses of it from the helicopter on his trips to and from prison. He was certain he would find it if he just kept moving. Sure enough, he came to the edge of a lake in the middle of the city, with a single bridge running to an island in the center. He was surprised to find the bridge unguarded. No one was using it at the moment, so he hurried across it as fast as he could. The far side was blocked off by a fence, but Crow was an old hand at getting over, under, and around all forms of security. He squirmed between the bars and charted a path across the garden, hiding behind the rose bushes and ornamental shrubs.

_Now, if I were Yusei, where would I be?_

That was a tough one. Crow had never imagined that Yusei would be in a place like this at all. He was more the kind you expected to find tucked away in a garage somewhere, tinkering with some project or another. He'd always been clever with that kind of thing...

_Wait. Garage?_

There was a garage. Crow spotted it from a distance and hurried toward it. Its doors were open to catch the afternoon breeze, and Crow could hear the sound of someone rattling around inside. Crow pressed himself against a side wall and crept closer until he could peek around a corner. There was a young man sitting in the middle of the garage floor, surrounded by plans and parts and what looked like the bare frame of a D-Wheel, with another finished one sitting nearby. Crow grinned.

"Oi! Yusei!"

Yusei looked up, his expression stunned. Then he broke into a smile of relief and hurried towards him.

"Crow," he greeted. "I'm glad to see you. I've been worried."

Crow clasped Yusei's hands, laughing with relief. "Yusei, you bastard, you're living high on the hog! What are you doing out here?"

"It's a long story," Yusei replied. "What about you? Are you all right?"

"I'm hanging in there," said Crow. "It's been a rough ride, I'll tell ya."

"Where's Kiryu? Isn't he with you?"

Crow's face fell. "That's a problem."

"What do you mean?" asked Yusei, raising an eyebrow. "You didn't lose him, did you?"

"No!" said Crow. "Well, kind of." He shook his head. "Yusei... Kiryu's changed. I mean, a lot."

"How so?"

"It's hard to say. I guess being in jail messed him up pretty bad," said Crow. "Half the time, he's off in his own little world. He keeps ranting at people who aren't there, or thinking he's still back in prison. And he's mad at you. Really, really mad."

Yusei frowned. "About...?"

Crow swallowed hard. He knew he had to say it, but he was worried about what the answer would be. He said it anyway.

"Kiryu says you betrayed him to Security," he said. "He told me that you knew he didn't kill that officer, but you turned him anyway."

"He didn't?"

Yusei looked so stunned by this revelation that Crow felt himself relax a little.

"He says he didn't," Crow said. "What he told me was that the guy fell off his bike and crashed, and Kiryu never touched him."

"I see... I didn't know," said Yusei, looking genuinely distressed. "I only saw him standing there covered in blood, holding that board in his hands, and I assumed..."

"He was holding a board?" Crow repeated.

"A piece of wood, anyway."

_I get it,_ Crow thought. _Maybe he didn't hurt that guy, but he was planning to. Yusei stopped him. Maybe Kiryu didn't deserve to take the blame for it, but Yusei didn't do anything wrong, either._

"Anyway, I would never turn him in," said Yusei. "I did everything I could to stop them. I tried to tell the chief officer that it was me - that I was the leader of the team, that I planted the bomb. He must have known better, though. He just put his hand on my shoulder, like he was apologizing."

"I believe you," said Crow, "but I don't think Kiryu does. He probably saw all that and thought the guy was congratulating you. Seriously, he's out for blood. You're going to need to watch your step."

"I'm safe enough here," said Yusei.

"I got in."

Yusei smiled a little. "You're an expert."

"Well, yeah, that's true!" said Crow. "What are you doing here, anyway? This is the last place I'd expect to find you."

"I didn't expect it either," Yusei replied. "But it turns out that the Director was a friend of my father's."

"And he took pity on you?"

"No," said Yusei. "He wants me to deal with some of my father's unfinished business."

"Ahh, gotcha," said Crow. "I didn't think he was much of a guy for doing stuff out of the goodness of his heart, you know?"

"He isn't," Yusei agreed. "But he wants this job done, and he is willing to offer me a lot to do it."

"Must be some job," said Crow. "What's he offering? Does he need any other takers? I could use some spare change."

"He's offered me your freedom," Yusei replied.

Crow blinked. "Huh?"

"In exchange for agreeing to help him, he promised to set you free from prison," Yusei replied. "As far as Security is concerned, you and Kiryu are both dead. Your markers have been deactivated and the numbers purged from the system. Security won't bother you anymore."

"Whoa," said Crow. No more prison? Ever? The enormity of the idea stunned him.

_All this time, Kiryu thought Yusei was conspiring against him, and he's been over here trying to bail us out!_ he thought. Then a new idea occurred to him. _If I had just stayed put and minded my own business, Yusei woulda gotten us both out without getting anyone in trouble. When am I going to learn not to jump into things?_

"It's fine," Yusei assured him. "When this job is done, Goodwin has promised to finish building the Daedalus Bridge. Satellite is going to be rebuilt."

Crow shook his head in disbelief. "This must be one hell of a job."

"It is," said Yusei.

"Anything I can do to help?" asked Crow.

"Yes, Crow," said a voice behind him. "Show us all how _helpful_ you can be."

Crow felt the bottom fall out of his stomach.

"If I turn around," he said, "I'm not going to like what I see, am I?"

"Sorry to see me, Crow?" asked Kiryu's voice in his ear. "I'm sorry to see you too. I never thought you'd betray me like this..."

Crow got out of the way, trying to put himself between Yusei and Kiryu.

"You've got it all wrong!" he protested. "If you'd just listen..."

"No more listening," said Kiryu. He gave Crow a look of pure hatred. "I thought I could trust you. I thought we were _friends_."

"Kiryu, don't!" Yusei exclaimed, but it was already happening.

Kiryu made a lunge at Crow, who tried valiantly to block him, but he was running on days of no sleep and little food, and his reflexes were too slow. Kiryu flung him aside. Crow went sailing and hit the pavement hard enough to make him see stars. As he attempted to rise, Yusei lashed back at Kiryu, and the two of them began to struggle. Crow watched through his spinning vision as the two fought.

_Dammit, I need to do something,_ he told himself, but pain and shock and exhaustion were working against him. He tried to stand and felt such a wave of dizziness wash over him that he had to lie down again. In desperation, he began shouting, hoping someone would hear and come running.

"Hey! Somebody, come quick! Get over here now! Fire! Thieves! Vandalism! Come on, where are you Security guys when I need you?"

Meanwhile, Kiryu and Yusei struggled. Yusei, well-fed and rested, should have been the stronger of the two, but Kiryu was powered by a mad strength. He seemed to feel no pain.

"Kiryu, just listen," Yusei panted. "You don't have to do this. I'm trying to help..."

"Why should I trust you? So you can betray me again? So you can give me back to _them_?" Kiryu snarled through gritted teeth. "Forget it!"

He swung a fist at Yusei, but Yusei ducked and punched him in the stomach. Taken by surprise, Kiryu staggered backwards and fell into a heap of tools and metal parts.

"Kiryu," said Yusei, "calm down. I haven't betrayed you. I've been doing everything I can to help you. Have you noticed that Security hasn't been looking for you? I made them agree to set you free. You don't have to go back to jail. You can do whatever you want, now."

Kiryu was quiet for a moment, letting that sink in.

"Anything?" he repeated softly.

Yusei nodded.

For a few seconds, Kiryu's expression seemed to soften. Then it twisted again.

"I want you to die!"

His hand closed around a screwdriver, and he rolled to his feet, lunging at Yusei and driving the point of the tool at Yusei's throat. They fell onto the pavement together, with Yusei holding desperately onto Kiryu's wrist, attempting to wrench the makeshift weapon from his hands.

"Kiryu..." he gasped, eyes wide, "don't do this..."

"Goodbye, Yusei," said Kiryu.

He twisted, jerking his hand free, and drove it downwards.

There was a flash and a sizzle. Kiryu gave a gasp, his body jolting, and the screwdriver dropped from his hand. The light flashed again, and Kiryu pitched over sideways and lay still. Yusei remained frozen where he was, staring. Kiryu was looking at him, his eyes burning with hate.

"Traitor," he whispered. "I'll kill you if it's the last thing I ever..."

Then the light went out of his eyes, and he became still.

Several Security guards rushed forward. One was still carrying the gun that had fired the blasts. A few yards behind them were Ushio and Mikage.

"Yusei, are you all right?" she asked, when she came close enough. "What _happened?_"

Crow finally managed to pull himself into a sitting position.

"Kiryu," he said. "Is he...?"

One of the guards knelt next to Kiryu's motionless body, expertly touching pulse points. He shook his head. From a pocket, he produced a handkerchief and draped it over Kiryu's face.

"No," said Crow. "He can't be. He was just..."

"All right," said Ushio, his voice booming loud enough to make everyone look at him, "somebody tell me what's going on here. How did these guys get in? Who's guarding the gate?"

"The security alarms were..." someone began, but Ushio cut him off.

"I don't want to hear it! This is the Director's home, and you're letting random people wander in off the street! And you - what did you think you were doing?"

He turned an accusing finger on the man who had fired the shots. The young man flinched.

"I just saw them fighting, and I was trying to fend him off..."

"And for that you needed to kill someone? I ought to have your badge! I'll have you busted down so low you'll have to ask permission to give out parking tickets!" He turned to Yusei, his expression contrite. "I'm really sorry, Yusei. I don't know what to say to you. Are you all right?"

"I'm not hurt," said Yusei, getting to his feet. "Crow, are you...?"

Crow shook his head. He was trembling enough to make his teeth chatter, though the day was warm. He couldn't stop staring at the place where Kiryu's body lay. He had just... died, right there in front of him. One moment he had been wildly alive, and the next...

He became aware of a movement close by. Mikage had knelt by his side.

"You poor thing. You're in shock," she said. She turned to one of the guards. "Someone get him a blanket and a cup of tea. We should keep him warm."

"I'm f-f-fine," he said. He took a breath and tried to steady his nerves. "I'm okay. Really. Who are you?"

Yusei walked closer to him. "Crow, this is Special Investigator Sagiri Mikage, and that's Officer Ushio Tetsu. Don't worry, they're friends of mine. You can trust them."

_To do what?_ Crow wondered. His brain felt fragmented. A part of him wanted to scream and cry and have a complete and total meltdown, but he couldn't seem to get to that place from where he was now. He was tired and hungry and his head hurt, and he'd just watched one of his best friends try to kill one of his other best friends, and he was stuck in a strange city with no idea what to do next. He was glad that Kiryu was finally gone so that he didn't have to deal with him anymore, and he hated himself for feeling that way. He wished somebody would give him something to eat and a safe warm place to curl up and sleep and forget anything had ever happened.

"I want to go home," he said.

Yusei looked at Mikage, who shook her head.

"I don't think it can be done right now," she said. "He's supposed to be dead. Getting him across the Security barrier will raise some questions. He's too notorious to pass without comment." She frowned. "We can't keep him here, though. I don't think the Director would approve."

"I'll deal with it," said Yusei. "I have a friend who might be willing to give him a place to stay. I'll ask him."

The guard returned with a blanket and a mug with a teabag in it. Crow accepted both gratefully, pulling the blanket tightly around him and cupping the mug in his cold hands. The tea was barely beginning to steep, and it was too hot to drink comfortably, but he sipped at it anyway, letting the warmth roll through him, returning his strength.

_I'll be all right,_ he told himself. _The Kiryu I knew died a long time ago. It's only just catching up to him now..._

"Feeling better now?" Mikage asked him. "Can you talk about what happened here?"

"Isn't it obvious?" he snapped.

If his sharp reply bothered her, Mikage didn't let it show.

"I can see what happened," she said, "but if you don't mind, I'd like some explanation as to why."

"Oh. Right. I guess I can do that," said Crow.

So he began to explain. At first, he wasn't quite sure how he was going to get the words out with his brain feeling so scrambled, but Mikage was patient with him, and gradually the story came out. He talked about how he and his friends had formed their gang on Satellite, how close Kiryu and Yusei had been, how the team had ultimately fractured, and finally described the events starting with the prison break and ending with the scene that had just played out. Mikage listened attentively, interrupting only to ask for clarification and occasionally making a note. When Crow finally ran out of words, he sat watching her expectantly.

"Are you going to send me back to jail?" he asked. He might have had Yusei's word, but Crow didn't have much regard for the honor of Security officers.

Mikage shook her head. "I couldn't if I wanted to. As far as Security is concerned, you're completely off the record books. I'm afraid we'll have to find something else to do with you."

"Huh," said Crow. "I guess can live with that."

"I won't pretend you haven't caused a lot of trouble," she continued. "People have been hurt because of what you did."

"I know," he said, bowing his head. "I wish I hadn't done it... but I couldn't just leave him to die, you know? He's my friend." He paused. "Was. _Was_ my friend."

Mikage's expression softened. "Yes. You've paid a lot for your mistakes already. I don't suppose there would be much point in sending you back to prison, even if I could."

"Thanks," said Crow. He wasn't sure what he was thanking her for. Maybe it was just for the privilege of being treated with some sympathy by someone who would usually have been his enemy.

Yusei, meanwhile, was talking on the telephone.

"Yanagi," he said, "this is Yusei. You remember me, don't you? We met at the Director's manor."

"Of course I do, sonny!" said the old man. "What's on your mind? Are you going to come over now? I was making dinner - you're welcome to share."

"Dinner would be good, but not for me," said Yusei. "I've got a friend here who's in a bad way. He's been through some hard times, and he needs a place to stay and rest for a while. I don't want to impose on you, but..."

"No trouble at all!" said Yanagi, and Yusei smiled a little at his enthusiasm. He had guessed right: the old man was lonely, and wanted someone to talk to. Crow would be fine, as long as he didn't mind having his ear talked off.

"My friend's name is Crow," said Yusei. "He's rough around the edges, but he's a good person. A friend of his died tonight, so go easy on him."

"Right, right, I understand," said Yanagi. "Don't you worry about a thing. I'll take good care of him for you."

Satisfied that his friend would be all right, Yusei concluded his conversation with Yanagi and went to see how Crow was doing. He was still sipping at his tea and being fussed over by Mikage, while Ushio oversaw the removal of Kiryu's body. Yusei tried not to look. He had wanted so badly to help him. He was on autopilot now, trying to deal with everything that needed to be dealt with, but later, when he was alone with no one relying on him...

"What did your friend say?" Mikage asked him.

"He says its all right if Crow stays with him for a while," said Yusei. "Are you all right with that, Crow?"

"That sounds as good as anything," said Crow. "Has your friend got something to eat? Because my last meal was your leftover sandwich from last night."

Yusei gave him a reassuring smile. "Yanagi says he's making dinner right now. I'm sure he'll have something for you to eat."

"Is there anything else you need?" asked Mikage. "If there's anything I can do..."

Crow considered a moment. "Can I have my D-Wheel back?"

"I believe I can arrange that," she said. "I'll contact someone and have it delivered to you tomorrow."

"That's good," said Crow. "I kinda missed it. Pearson would come back and haunt me if I let anything happen to it. Oh, and, um... there's something else..."

Mikage looked at him quizzically. "Yes?"

"The guard I stole the key card from... Is he okay?" Crow asked. "I mean, it's not his fault I tricked him, and he's got a wife and kids and stuff. I don't want him to get in trouble because of me..."

She shook her head, more in wonder than disapproval. "This is the first time I've ever heard a prisoner inquire about the welfare of his guards."

"Well, he was a good guy!" Crow protested.

"I'll see what I can do," said Mikage. She gave him an evaluating look. "I really am going to have to get used to you Satellite people not being what I expect."

Ushio joined the rest of the group. He looked ill-at-ease; sympathy was obviously not his strongest skill, and he seemed at a loss for what to say.

"Everybody doing okay over here?" he asked.

"We're managing," said Yusei.

"I'll be okay," said Crow. "Really, don't fuss over me. Yusei's the one he was after."

"We're going to have to file a report later," said Mikage. "Right now, I think it's more important to make sure you get some rest. You look like you're about to collapse."

"Been a rough week," Crow admitted. "Hey... if you really want to help, could you check on my kids for me?"

Ushio gave Yusei a puzzled look. "He's got kids?"

"Orphans," Yusei explained. "There are a lot of kids on Satellite whose parents are dead or in jail. Crow takes care of some of them."

"Huh," said Ushio thoughtfully. "I guess I could do that. I know my way around Satellite enough to find them."

"Thanks," said Crow. "That'll really take a load off my mind. We've got a hideout under the old Daedauls Bridge, but if they're not there, they're probably at Martha's. Yusei can give you directions."

"I'm on it," Ushio promised. He turned to Yusei. "Hey - loan me some money."

"Why?" asked Yusei, puzzled.

"Because if I'm going to get anyone on Satellite to talk to me, I figure I'd better have a peace offering in hand."

Yusei took out his wallet and removed all the money from it, pressing the bills into Ushio's hand.

"Take it," he said. "If it's a gift for Martha and the kids, you can have it."

"Tell everybody I'm okay," said Crow. "Tell them I'll be home soon. Tell them I miss them."

"Will do," Ushio promised. "You can count on me."

Yusei gave Ushio directions to Crow's hideout and to Martha's orphanage, and gave Mikage directions to Yanagi's house. Once they were all certain they knew where to go, they took off in different directions - Ushio on his Security D-Wheel and Mikage driving a car with Crow tucked in the seat next to her. Yusei watched them go, feeling deserted. Then he slowly walked back inside.

**To Be Continued...**


	17. They Form a Ring

**They Form a Ring**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Ushio drove thoughtfully, considering his options. He had counted the money Yusei had given him and been surprised to see that it amounted to several hundred thousand yen. When he was Yusei's age, he never would have even considered giving that much money to anyone, much less someone he'd only known for a few days. He felt obligated to do something good with it. What did you buy for a woman and a bunch of kids in Satellite? Food, he decided. Toys too, maybe, if he was dealing with kids. Wasn't Crow always breaking into the warehouse and stealing cards? It had never dawned on Ushio to wonder exactly why he did it. Satelliters stole things - everyone knew that, so why question it? But come to think of it, of all the loot he could have stolen, he'd never taken anything but cards.

Ushio parked his bike in the Secuirty parking garage and went to pick up a squad car. While he was there, he made a few phone calls, so that everything he needed would be waiting for him when he got there. Assured that all was in order, he took his car and set out to make a few pickups and deliveries.

A short while later, he was on his way to Satellite, with his back seat loaded with a variety of gifts suitable for coaxing out understandably reluctant children. He followed the directions Yusei had given him to the site of the old bridge. It didn't look much like a bridge now - just a few rusty old beams and strips of sheet metal reaching out towards the water. Someone had constructed a little nook there in its shadow, so cunningly that he never would have given it a second glance if he'd walked by it. Now he parked his car and got out for a better look. There was no light to be seen, and the door was shut tight. Someone had pinned a note to it, and Ushio pulled it free to read it. A childish scrawl, obviously some little boy or girl's most careful handwriting, was printed across it: "CROW - We wen't to Marthas hows. Com bakc soon. WE LUV YOU!" along with lots of lopsided hearts. Ushio looked at the paper for a moment before tucking it in his pocket. He had a notion that Crow would like to have it.

Assured that the children weren't anywhere near the bridge, he reversed direction and took off for Martha's house. He wasn't sure what he was expecting to find, but he was still surprised when he got there. The rest of Satellite might have been falling to pieces, but the orphanage turned out to be almost pleasant. As he came around the side, he noted a garden in the back - with flowers! - and a few resilient trees growing nearby. The house itself looked well cared-for, but he had a feeling that it would show signs of wear if he could see it in full light instead of the gathering dusk. Right now, though, with its windows glowing brightly and casting golden pools of light onto the lawn, the house looked like a haven of warmth and peace. Small wonder that children came here for refuge.

Ushio parked his car just beyond the circle of light. A spirit of mischief moved him, and he eased his way up to the front door with his best authoritative swagger. As he approached, he was aware of several small faces peering through the windows at him, but they vanished as soon as he looked their way. He reached the front door, composed his face into a grave expression, and rapped smartly.

The door was opened by a woman that Ushio assumed was Martha. She was younger than he expected - he'd been anticipating a gray-haired matron, but she couldn't have been very much older than Ushio himself. She had the look of someone who had been constructed for the primary purpose of giving and receiving hugs and providing a lap for children to sit on. She also had the look of someone who would chase him off the island with a frying pan if he threatened her brood.

"Is there a problem, Officer?" she asked warily.

"No problem, ma'am," he answered. "I just wondered if I might ask you a couple of questions."

She nodded. Behind her, a few children peeked out of their hiding places to get a better look at the stranger on their doorstep.

"Tell me, ma'am," said Ushio, "how many children have you got living here now?"

Martha made a quick mental count. "Ten. There were fewer earlier in the week, but I've had some new arrivals."

"I see," said Ushio. "All right. How many pizzas have you got on hand?"

"Pizzas?" Martha repeated doubtfully. "Why do you need..."

"Just answer the question, ma'am."

"I haven't got any," she said.

"I suspected as much," said Ushio. He gave her a serious look. "I shouldn't have to tell you that you're well below the regulation number of pizzas for a household this size. That's a serious violation, right there."

"It is?"

"Absolutely," said Ushio. He broke into a grin. "Fortunately, I've got a solution right here, courtesy of Fudo Yusei and Crow Hogan. Anybody want to help me unload the car?"

Martha stared at him in surprise, and then laughed, realizing he'd been pulling her leg.

"Those scamps!" she said. "I should have known they would pull something like this. Kids? Kids, come on out. Everything is fine."

A number of children came from various directions to have a look at the stranger who had come to liven up their evening.

"This nice man has brought us dinner," Martha was saying. "Why don't some of you help him carry everything inside?"

Children scrambled to get out of the house, and Ushio had to move out of the way to avoid being stampeded. Over the ruckus, he heard one of the boys say, "See, I told you!" Ushio wondered what the argument had been about. He trotted outside to make sure no one was doing anything damaging to his police car.

"All right, all right, hold your horses!" he told them. "The food's not going anywhere!"

He opened the car door and started distributing things to carry. Yusei's generous contribution had afforded a good haul: a dozen pizzas in various flavors, chicken wings, bread sticks, two cases of soda, and three dozen cupcakes. There were also two plastic bags that Ushio carried in himself. Once everything had been piled up inside, Martha set her crew to setting the table. Ushio stood by, ill at ease, wondering what else he was supposed to be doing. As he watched the action unfold, one of the boys separated himself from the group and went to tug on Ushio's pants leg.

"Can I see your badge?" he asked.

"What do you need to see that for?" Ushio demanded.

"Because I want to see it!"

There didn't seem to be any good response to that sort of logic. With an exaggerated sigh, Ushio fished out his Security ID and proffered it. The boy stared at it, wide-eyed with delight.

"Wow, that's so cool!" he enthused. "When I grow up, I'm going to be a Security officer, too. I'm going to help people and fight badguys!"

"Takuya, don't pester the officer," said Martha. "Go wash your hands for dinner."

"Okay!" said Takuya. He gave Ushio one last worshipful glance before scurrying away.

Martha smiled at Ushio. "It looks like you've made a friend."

"Kids get funny ideas," said Ushio with a shrug. "Does he know that people from Satellite can't become Security officers?"

Martha shook her head. "I haven't had the heart to tell him. These kids have so little to hope for... I just keep telling myself that someday, things will be different."

"Huh," said Ushio doubtfully. "What's he want to join the force for, anyway? I thought all you Satellite folks thought we were the enemy."

"He's not from Satellite," said Martha. "He was born in the city, but his parents were both killed in an accident. The officers on the scene did everything they could to save them, but..." She trailed off and shook her head. "Takuya is a good boy. He could have blamed them for not being able to save his parents. Instead, he sees them as heroes. You haven't done anything to change his mind tonight," she added with a smile.

"I'm just doing my job," he said.

"Lots of Security men do their jobs," said Martha. "They've never brought us gifts, or done anything to try to help us."

"I didn't do much. It was Crow who asked me, and Yusei who gave me the money..."

"They're fine boys," she agreed. "I'm glad to know they're doing all right."

Ushio shifted uncomfortably. "Yeah, about that..."

Martha raised an eyebrow, preparing to ask questions, but was interrupted by a small girl with pigtails who darted up to tug on her dress.

"Martha, we're done setting the table!" she said.

"Good girl," said Martha. "We'll be along in a minute." Turning to Ushio, she said, "Won't you join us for dinner?"

"Yeah, eat with us!" some of the other children chimed in, evidently amused by the novelty of sitting down to dinner with a Security officer.

"Well, I guess..." he said.

"You can tell me more about what the boys are doing after we eat," said Martha.

And that was all there was to it; once Martha had him by the arm and started hauling him towards a chair, he had no option but to do as she told him. The children were clearly delighted with the spread laid out for them, and thrilled by the cupcakes he'd brought for dessert. At their prompting, he told them stories - only slightly exaggerated - of heroic deeds, tales in which he vanquished evil-doers and engaged in high-speed chases using cunning plans and nerves of steel. Even after everyone had eaten their fill, there was still a good deal left. Martha directed her charges in putting leftovers into an ancient refrigerator.

"You help me," she said to Ushio, indicating all the dishes that needed washing. "We can talk while we wash."

"Yes, ma'am," he said obediently, reflecting that there was no such thing as a free meal.

So while they washed, he filled Martha in on the latest events, covering everything from Crow and Kiryu's escape from jail, Yusei's new place in the Director's household, and even the escapades of Jack and his female friend as they continued to evade capture. He finished by telling what he knew regarding the events surrounding Kiryu's death. Martha shook her head sadly.

"He had a lot of promise, that boy," she said. "He started out well, but he went bad. It's a shame."

"Was he one of yours?" Ushio asked.

"No, but I knew him. The other boys loved him like a big brother. He had a lot of big ideas - he wanted to make this island a place where people could be happy to live," said Martha. "But that was too big a job for one man - or even one man with three good friends helping him. It broke him long before he went to prison. I'm sorry that it turned him against his friends."

Ushio became aware of a presence next to him, and he turned to see Takuya looking up at him.

"What do you want, kid?" he asked gruffly.

"Are you gonna leave now?" he asked. "Can't you stay and play with us?"

"I think Officer Ushio probably has to go back to work," said Martha. "But maybe he'll come visit again one day."

"Yeah, you bet," said Ushio. "I... I'll come back, one of these days. Soon."

"Tomorrow?" asked Takuya.

"I don't know about tomorrow," said Ushio, "but I did bring you guys a present tonight. Will that keep you happy for a while?"

"A present? Really?" asked one of the other children. "Toys?"

"Look and see," said Ushio. He produced one of the plastic bags he'd brought in with him and pulled out a cardboard box - an unopened carton of one hundred packs of Duel Monsters cards. As soon as the children saw it, they let out a whoop of delight and clustered around to collect their shares of the treasure. Ushio carefully counted out ten packs for each child, and soon they were all busy swapping cards with each other and striking up games.

"What a mess," said Martha, smiling. "I'll never get these kids to bed tonight now, you know. They're going to want to stay up all night playing."

"Yeah, well," he said, by way of apology. "Anyway, I got something for you too. I mean, I figured you could use it."

He passed her the other bag. It was filled with things he'd picked up at the drugstore - soaps and toothbrushes and toothpaste, medicines for sniffles and aches and upset stomachs, boxes of bandages and tubes of ointment.

"Would you look at all this," she murmured. She looked up at him, her eyes suspiciously bright. "We needed this, and that's a fact. You don't know how much this means to all of us."

"I kinda guessed," he said.

Martha looked out at the children as they played with each other. "You know, this is better than Christmas for these kids. I could never have done all this for them on my own. I wasn't even sure how I was going to feed all these extra mouths until you came along, but what you've brought will see us through a few more days. I can't thank you enough."

She tugged his collar and pulled him down to give him a motherly buss on the cheek, and he blushed brilliantly.

"It was nothing," he muttered. "Really."

And as he looked around, it dawned on him that he was telling the truth. He'd been feeling rather proud of himself, thinking that he'd done a good deed, gone above and beyond what was required of him, and that he deserved some praise for it. But what Martha had said was true - the food would run out in a few days, and then what would they eat? The children were still dressed in rags, and most of them were wearing rough wooden sandals instead of proper shoes. The house had plainly been kept up as well as anyone could under the circumstances, but everywhere he looked, he saw signs of wear. He felt as though he had just poured a thimbleful of water onto a desert.

He wondered suddenly what was going to become of these kids. What would happen to Takuya when he realized that he would never achieve his dream? Would he give up and spend the rest of his life laboring away in the garbage plant? Would he turn to crime to get by? Would he end up in jail? Would he finish his days like Kiryu, driven mad by his frustration? Would his children end up in orphanages to start the cycle over again?

_This is all messed up,_ he thought. _Things can't go on like this..._

"Things are going to get better," he said aloud.

"You think so?" asked Martha.

"I know it," he said. "Yusei's trying to fix it right now. He's got a promise from the Director - if he does a job for him, the Director is going to finish the bridge and get this place fixed up. And he's not working alone. I'm going to help him, and Mikage, and - I don't know, maybe Crow and that Yanagi guy too. We're going to get it done, you'll see."

Martha smiled. "I believe it. I trust Yusei... and I trust you, too."

"I'll do what I can," he promised. "And I'll be back sometime. You know. Just to check on things."

"Of course you will," said Martha. "You should run along now. You have work to do that isn't babysitting us."

"You sure it's all right?"

"I'm sure. I've been raising up broods like this for years. You go on. But come back sometime - you're always welcome here."

As Ushio left the house, he reflected that this was probably the first time anyone on Satellite had said that to a Security officer. It wasn't the kind of thing people said frequently to him in any situation. He drove home in a thoughtful frame of mind. Most of his thoughts were centered around wondering if there was a way for a boy from Satellite to become a Security officer.

He returned to the manor and went looking for Mikage. He found her in a sitting room, unwinding over a cup of tea. Ushio dropped into a chair across from her, and she obligingly poured him a cup and pushed it across the coffee table.

"Thanks," he said. "How'd it go with Crow?"

"He's fine," said Mikage. "That man Yusei sent him to is a sweetheart - I'm sure he'll take good care of Crow for us, until we figure out what to do with him." She sighed, leaning back and closing her eyes. "I don't think I can do anything else tonight. I've never had anyone die on my watch before... it's so awful I can hardly think straight. Tell me what happened to you - was everything all right? You were gone a long time."

"I got invited to dinner," said Ushio. "The kids are fine. They went and found Martha and settled in with her, so you can tell Crow from me that they're well taken care of."

"That's good," said Mikage. "I'm glad to hear something is going right tonight."

"Me too," Ushio agreed. He was quiet a moment. At length, he said, "Mikage, do you ever think that things ought to be better than they are?"

She looked at him quizzically. "Of course I do. That's why I go to work every day."

"I'm starting to get that feeling, too," said Ushio.

"Oh really?"

"Yeah," he said. "I don't want to see any more kids grow up like that Kiryu."

"That was a terrible thing. It shouldn't have happened," said Mikage. "I'm going to have trouble getting to sleep tonight."

"Well, you know, I'm used to working the night shift anyway," Ushio said. "I could hang out with you a while, you know, just to keep you company."

She gave him a shy smile. "I'd like that."

"Okay," he said, practically glowing with pleasure. "Um... so what do you want to talk about?"

"Oh, I don't know," she said, arranging herself more comfortably on the sofa. "Tell me about Satellite. I've never been there."

"All right," said Ushio. "For starters, let me tell you what I saw tonight..."

* * *

Yusei was watching the stars. He had found a perch on one of the manor's many balconies, where the light of the city didn't interfere too much with his view of the night sky. Satellite's smog-filled skies hadn't been the best for stargazing, and now he found the sight of the uninterrupted sweep of stars to be oddly soothing. It made his troubles seem very small in comparison.

He was distracted from his thoughts by the sound of a door sliding open, and he turned to see Goodwin step out onto the balcony. Yusei merely regarded him suspiciously, and Goodwin said nothing to him, but merely walked over to lean his arms on the railing a few feet away. They stood there like that for a moment, not looking at each other.

"I heard what happened today," said Goodwin at length.

"About Kiryu."

"Yes. I am sorry for your loss."

Yusei looked at Goodwin speculatively. He wasn't sure if the man meant what he said. Insincerity wouldn't have surprised him. What surprised him was that he wasn't sure Goodwin _didn't_ mean it. He wanted to say, "You planned to kill him yourself; you were going to execute him," but he stifled the urge. He felt too drained to pick a fight with the Director tonight.

"I should have acted sooner," he said instead. "I could have done something."

"Possibly," said Goodwin. "Or perhaps not. From all I hear, he was determined to see you dead."

"I still wish I'd done something. Stopped him from planting that bomb. Helped him get away. I tried to get them to arrest me instead of him, but..."

Goodwin raised an eyebrow. "You would have gone to prison for him? You do realize that you would have been executed in his place."

"I owed it to him. He saved my life," said Yusei. "I was being chased across the rooftops by a rival gang, and I took a jump and missed. Kiryu caught me as I fell. I would have died if he hadn't been there for me." He trailed off, shaking his head. "But it's more than that. He wasn't just a friend to me. He was my brother."

Goodwin twitched. It was only a tiny tremor, almost imperceptible, but Yusei saw it and wondered. The Director lowered his gaze for a moment, and when he looked up, he was composed once more.

"I see you are injured," he said. "Are you all right?"

"Hm?" Yusei replied. "Oh, this. Kiryu didn't do that. That was Ushio."

"Officer Ushio did that?" Goodwin repeated, surprised.

"We had a fight," said Yusei.

"What on earth were you fighting about?"

Yusei thought about that for a moment. "Everything."

"I see," said Goodwin, looking skeptical. "That is quite a lot to fight about."

"It was quite a fight," Yusei agreed.

"Ah," Goodwin replied. "That was unbecoming of him. He should know better. Do you want me to discipline him?"

Yusei shook his head. "No, it's fine. We worked it out between ourselves. There's no point in punishing him now. Didn't you ever have fights with anyone when you were young?"

"No," said Goodwin, turning away. "My brother did my fighting for me."

_That's right, he's lost his brother, too,_ Yusei realized. For all Goodwin's inscrutability, Yusei was willing to bet that pain was real. And he had known Yusei's father and mother - they had been his friends. He shared the same loss Yusei had. On that level, at least, they were the same. Yusei had a sudden sense of fellow-feeling for the man.

"Who are you really?" he asked.

Goodwin raised an eyebrow. "You know who I am. I'm not hiding anything from you."

"I know what you call yourself," said Yusei, "and I know what you do, but I don't understand you. I want to know who you really are."

There was a pause. For a moment, Yusei thought that Goodwin wasn't going to answer him, or was going to put him off with some blithe response. Then Goodwin sighed, letting his shoulders slump. For a moment, he looked the very picture of a man who has had the fight go out of him.

"I," he said, "am a man who has been given more responsibility than he wants, so I am passing some of it on to you."

Yusei regarded Goodwin for a moment, thinking, _You know, I think that's the first completely honest answer I've ever gotten out of you._ Impulsively, he said, "What is it you really want me to do? I know you're not telling me everything. Let me know what you're doing so I can help you."

"You know enough," said Goodwin.

Yusei shook his head. "I've barely scratched the surface. Listen. You can trust me. I want to help, but you have to be honest with me. I'd be able to do more if you'd tell me what's really going on."

"Why should I trust you?" Goodwin asked.

"You were my father's friend," Yusei replied. "I think he would like it if you were mine as well."

Goodwin hesitated. Yusei could almost hear him thinking, weighing the options. The moon highlighted the fine lines around his eyes and mouth and made his hair look almost white, aging him beyond his years. He looked so tired that for a fleeting instant Yusei felt genuinely sorry for him. He knew that no matter what Goodwin said next, he would do everything in his power to try to help him.

Just then, the door was flung open, and Jaeger ran out, looking harried.

"Director! There you are!" he exclaimed. "I've been looking for you everywhere! There's an urgent phone call for you."

"I see," said Goodwin. He was all business again, with no trace of his earlier vulnerability. "Thank you. Tell them I'll be right there."

Jaeger gave a quick bow and scampered off again. Goodwin turned to Yusei, his expression unreadable.

"It would seem I have business to take care of," he said. "I wish you a peaceful evening."

He turned and walked off. Yusei watched him go, feeling vaguely disappointed. He sighed and resumed watching the stars.

_Today is just not my day._

* * *

"Now," said Jack, arranging cards on the carpet, "tell me how you'd get out of this."

"Um..."

Carly stared thoughtfully down at the arrangement of cards on the field, and then turned her attention to her hand. Jack could almost hear her mind working. Then her expression brightened suddenly.

"I get it! This one first, right?" she said, placing a monster in front of her. "Then I can use its effect to summon a monster from my hand. And I can use _this_ one's effect to destroy a spell or trap card on the field, so I can make _that_ go away..." She pointed at his face-down card. "Then I'll use this equip card to raise my monster's attack enough to destroy yours, and my other one attacks directly! I win!"

Jack smiled a little. "That was too easy for you. Let's try a harder one."

"Okay!" she said.

Jack scooped together the cards and began setting up a new puzzle for her. Dueling against her directly, he'd discovered, was a waste of time - he was too proud to hold back, and she simply couldn't stand up to him for more than a round or two. Instead, he'd borrowed some cards that Yuji used for tutoring his students, and let Carly practice with those instead. Jack had privately suspected that it would be a waste of time, but she was turning out to be a reasonably good student - she had a good memory and a taste for solving puzzles. He would never make a world-class duelist out of her, but he thought with enough practice, he might at least turn her into a decent sparring partner. In the meantime, coming up with scenarios to test her with was moderately amusing, though he wouldn't have wanted to admit that he was enjoying himself.

He had just begun setting up a new arrangement of cards when a clatter outside the room announced that Yuji was attempting to hurry, and not really accomplishing much except making a racket. He had never found a graceful way to run and lean on his cane at the same time, but that never stopped him from trying. Carly, curious as ever, got up and opened the door to see what he wanted.

"There you two are!" he exclaimed. "I've been looking all over for you! Come on - come and see!"

Jack looked up sharply. "It's done?"

"All finished," Yuji agreed. "It's beautiful - you're going to love it."

Jack was on his feet before Yuji had even finished speaking. He brushed past him and started at a lope for the garage. Carly chased behind him and latched onto his arm.

"Hey, slow down!" she protested. "We're coming too!"

"Yeah, take it easy," said Yuji, imperturbable as ever. "The bike goes pretty fast but it won't get away from you, I promise."

Jack grumbled a bit, but he did slow his pace enough that Yuji could keep up with him, and told himself he was only doing so because Carly wouldn't let go of his arm. He wanted to see his bike. It had been haunting his dreams: a nebulous but tantalizing image of freedom, power, and speed. There was a part of him that felt that his new life wouldn't really start until he had that machine. In the world he lived in, you were _sombody_ if you owned a D-Wheel. He'd have settled, at least in the short term, even for a rattletrap like Yusei's first construction, but Yuji and Saiga had been consistently promising that this was going to be good - the best, even. They hadn't said or done anything recently to suggest that the reality had failed to meet their expectations, and despite his better judgement, Jack had started to believe them. But what could two amateurs in a garage do? He forced himself to not get his hopes up too much, and be satisfied if it simply ran.

In the garage, Saiga was standing next to a shrouded hulk of something and grinning smugly. Whatever was under the sheet was an unusual shape, tall and rounded on top, not at all what Jack been expecting. He looked at Yuji inquisitively.

"Told you it was going to be something special," said Yuji. "Go on, take a look!"

Jack stepped closer to the machine, surprised to realize his heart was racing. He gripped the sheet with hands he was relieved to see were not visibly shaking, and whipped the covering away.

"Wow," said Carly.

Jack did not say "Wow". It was beneath his dignity to say such things. He simply stood, gazing at the silvery construction in front of him, gently running a hand over its side, and privately agreed with her assessment.

"It's a monowheel," said Yuji - rather unnecessarily. "This particular design is a little trickier to control than the usual two-wheeled design, but once you get used to it, you'll get more precision handling out of it. It's a fine piece of work, if I do say so myself."

"Seconded," said Saiga. He tossed Jack a key. "Go on, let's see how you manage it."

Jack lost no time in putting on his helmet and getting the bike onto the track. The others gathered at the fence, and he was acutely aware of them watching him eagerly. He smiled. If they wanted a show, he'd have to give them one.

"Show me what you can do," he whispered.

The machine responded as if it could hear him. It lunged forward, and he pressed down harder on the accelerator, wanting to see how fast it could go. It flew, moving like a streak of lightning, and he laughed aloud at the thrill of it. It was more than a machine - it felt like a part of his body, as though he hadn't been complete until he'd joined with it.

_Yes! This is exactly what I wanted... This D-Wheel is the one I was born to ride!_

He reached the end of the obstacle course and skidded to a halt in front of his friends, who were watching him expectantly. He carefully turned off the engine and removed his helmet.

"Well?" asked Yuji. "How is it?"

Jack gave him one of his rare genuine smiles.

"It will do," he said.

Yuji gave a jubilant whoop, actually managing to make a little hop in the air. "I knew it! I knew you'd love it."

"You look good on it, Jack," said Carly, eyes bright. He preened a little.

"I do, don't I?" he agreed.

Saiga laughed. "No one ever accused you of being too modest, did they?"

"Modesty is unsuitable for me," said Jack. "I'm the best. To say anything else would be dishonest."

"That's true!" Carly agreed.

"You two are something else," said Saiga.

"Hey, you know what comes next, right?" Yuji interjected. "It's time to have a party!"

"You're still stuck on that idea?" asked Saiga.

"Why not?" Yuji said. "Sounds like a good excuse for a party to me!"

"It is a good reason," said Jack. With the dignity of a king handing down an edict, he declared, "Let's celebrate!"

Within a few minutes, they had set up a makeshift party area outside next to the track. Saiga spread some quilts out on the grass and put down some cushions stolen from the living room to give them comfortable places to sit, and then found a radio to place outside to provide music for them. Carly and Yuji filled dishes with chips, pretzels, crackers and cheese, sliced vegetables and dip, and whatever else they could find lying around that looked like it would make good party food. Jack didn't do much of anything except stand around admiring the new love of his life, but no one seemed inclined to try to tear him away from it.

Just as dusk was falling, they gathered on the lawn to settle in for some serious celebrating. Yuji was the last to arrive, carefully juggling a bucket of ice and two bottles of champagne. Saiga raised an eyebrow.

"Give me that before you drop it," he said, going to pluck one of the bottles out of Yuji's hand. He studied the label. "This is the good stuff. You've been holding out on us."

"I was saving it for a special occasion," said Yuji. "Besides, I needed people around. You can't drink champagne alone."

Carly came over for a better look. "I don't think I'm old enough to drink this."

"Who cares?" said Jack. "You're already a criminal. What's a drink or two going to do to you? Pour some for me while you're at it."

"Oh, well," said Carly. "I wouldn't want to be left out!"

The drinks were served with a suitable flourish and a spurt of bubbles, and everyone clinked their glasses in a toast to their success. Jack sipped his drink and nodded his approval. Carly giggled and adjusted her glasses self-consciously.

"The bubbles tickle my nose," she said. "It's good, though."

"Better enjoy it!" said Yuji. "You don't get to drink this every day, only for big events. Next time I break out a bottle of this will be when you and Jack get married," he teased. Carly blushed brilliantly red, and Jack snorted.

"Stop putting ideas in her head," he said.

Yuji laughed, enjoying his discomfiture. "Aw, why not? You'd make a cute couple!"

Jack could feel his face heating, though he did his best to keep his expression neutral. Something must have showed, though, because Carly laughed and leaned against his shoulder.

"Yeah, Jack, we'd made a cute couple!" she chirped. Her eyes glittered with mischief.

Jack started to tell her that he wasn't the marrying type, or even the getting-into-a-relationship type, but he made the mistake of looking into her eyes. She was smiling up at him so confidently, and her body felt so warm pressed against his, and he suddenly found he couldn't get the words out. He turned away.

"I'm not cute," he said.

The others seemed to find this funny. Jack resolutely ignored all of them, keeping his attention on the D-Wheel while he waited for their hilarity to die down. Eventually they quieted and returned their attention to the party snacks, for which Jack was grateful. Saiga settled himself more comfortably on his cushion and thoughtfully munched a handful of pretzels, gazing at the bike. It gleamed softly in the moonlight.

"It needs a name," he said.

"What kind of name?" asked Jack.

"Search me," Saiga admitted. "Something, though. Like how Yuji's is called Talaria. It's too special a bike not to have a name."

"Hm," said Jack. "What _is_ a Talaria anyway? Someone's name?"

"It's the name of Mercury's winged sandals," Carly informed him.

Jack looked at her. "You know the strangest things."

"I'm a reporter. It's my job to know things."

"It's a good name," said Yuji. "I figure it wouldn't matter if you had a bad leg, if there were wings on your feet."

"Hm," said Jack. "That's fine for you, but this is _my_ D-Wheel. I need a name suitable to me."

Saiga shrugged. "So call it the Jack Attack or White Lightning or whatever suits you."

"Those are silly names," said Carly.

"Fine," said Saiga. "You come up with something better, then."

"All right," said Carly. "Hm..."

"It ought to have something to do with the design," said Yuji. "I mean, it's not every day you see a monowheel design like that. Something like the Ringleader or the Halo or something."

Carly had taken out her deck, her usual source of inspiration where big decisions were concerned, and was flipping through her cards. She contemplated one of her Fortune Ladies, twirling the card through her fingers.

"How about... the Wheel of Fortune?" she suggested.

There was a pause.

"That would work," said Jack.

"Hey, yeah, that's pretty good!" said Yuji.

He picked up the nearly empty bottle of champagne and carefully levered himself to his feet. He carried the bottle to where the bike was resting, and with a great flourish, poured the last few drops of champagne onto its nose.

"I hereby christen thee the Wheel of Fortune!" he intoned.

Carly applauded. Saiga popped open the other bottle of champagne and poured another round, and Yuji quickly set aside the empty bottle to scramble over for his share. Jack declined another drink, but everyone else was more than happy to help themselves. Carly seemed to have gotten over her misgivings about being underaged and was apparently enjoying herself. The party grew more boisterous as the level of their drinks went down, and they laughed and boasted as though all their hopes had already been realized. With the champagne fizzing in their veins and moonlight gleaming off the newly christened Wheel of Fortune, anything seemed possible. Could Jack win his way to the top of the Pro Leagues? Of course he could! Was Carly going to become a famous reporter? No doubt about it! And was there any doubt that the Wheel of Fortune and Jack's inevitable success in riding it was going to make Saiga and Yuji's fortune? Not a bit! Good times were ahead for all of them, and they couldn't help but feel jubilant. Even Jack relaxed after a while and began to join in with the celebration with good humor, if not quite the same level of hilarity as the others.

_Just like old times,_ he thought, feeling a flicker of nostalgia. He had spent many evenings like this with Yusei, Crow, and Kiryu. Maybe not with champagne and hors d'oeuvres, but with the same air of close-knit familiarity, the sound knowledge of being part of a team. He hadn't realized how much he'd missed that kind of closeness. He had taught himself to believe that he could do without it, that he was better off alone, and now these people had blundered into his life and made themselves at home there, and he wasn't sure he could get rid of them now even if he wanted to.

_I wonder what that makes us? Team Fortune?_

Meanwhile, Yuji was telling jokes.

"So there's this little old guy driving a big truck, one of those eighteen-wheelers," he said, "and he goes into a diner to have breakfast. A bunch of rough biker types come in and see him, and their leader goes up to him and drinks his coffee and pours his orange juice in his lap and dumps his food on the floor. All the other bikers are laughing at him, and he just sits there, all quiet. He gets up, pays his bill, and leaves. And the boss biker says, He wasn't much of a man, was he?' and the guy at the register says, He wasn't much of a trucker, either - he just ran over a bunch of bikes!'"

Saiga snorted and rolled his eyes, but Carly was struck by a giggle-fit. She laughed until she was breathless, finally toppling over sideways to land in Jack's lap, where she continued to let out streams of laughter interspersed with the occasional hiccup. Saiga shook his head, amused.

"She's drunk already," he said.

"Oh, is that what this is?" asked Carly vaguely.

Jack plucked her half-full glass, miraculously unspilled, from her fingers.

"You've had enough," he told her.

"Hey, that's mine!"

"Not anymore," he said.

He swallowed the last of the drink before she could try to wrest it away from him and set the empty glass aside. Something about this seemed to amuse Carly and set her off again. Jack glared at her.

"What is it now?" he asked.

"You drank from my glass!" she said, which didn't clarify matters any.

"Definitely drunk," said Saiga.

"No, I think I've got it," said Yuji. "Some people think if you drink from their glass, it's like a secondhand kiss. You know, your lips touching where hers were touching."

Jack rolled his eyes.

"Oh, for...!" he exclaimed. He glared down at Carly again. "Look here, you..."

But she was gone again, occupied with some other thought. In fact, she seemed to be staring in fascination at the rings on Jack's necklace, like a kitten observing a bit of string. She made a clumsy grab and managed to get her fingers around one of them, and turned it this way and that with a look of intense interest.

"Hey, look!" she said. "They match!"

It took Jack a moment to figure out what she was talking about. She had managed to half-sit and work the ring around until she was looking more or less straight through it, and had managed to line it up with the wheel on his bike so that they appeared to be the same size.

"Give me that," said Jack, tugging his ring free. Carly obediently let go. She lay down in his lap again and closed her eyes.

"It's a ring," she said. "I guess it would have to be a pretty big one, for all four of us..."

"Now what is she on about?" asked Saiga. He glanced at Yuji, who he seemed to have decided was a translator, but it was Jack who spoke.

"It was something we talked about once, I think," he said offhandedly. "Something about rings being symbols."

"Well, it is, kind of," said Yuji. "A symbol, I mean. I mean, Saiga and I built it, and Carly named it and picked the color, and you drive it, so it's like all four of us are bound up into it somehow."

"Yeah," said Carly drowsily. "That's what I meant."

"I think somebody's had enough partying for one day," said Saiga. "You'd better take her back in before we have to carry her."

"But I like it here," she protested, snuggling down more comfortably.

"No," said Jack. "Come on. Up."

She gave a little squeal as he hauled her to her feet, but he managed to get her propped more or less steadily, and herded her toward the house. She went willingly, if not very gracefully, but then, grace had never been her best suit even before she'd downed a few alcoholic beverages. He all but had to carry her up the stairs because she kept catching her toes on the treads, but he got her to her door without her doing any damage to herself or her surroundings. She stood there, leaning on the doorframe and watching him expectantly.

"Are you going to kiss me goodnight?" she asked.

"No," he told her.

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want to," he said automatically. It wasn't quite a lie, but it wasn't quite true, either. His reluctance probably had something to do with the fact that he'd never done it before, having never had anyone suitable to practice on, and the idea of doing something he would probably make a botched job of if he tried was enough to make him recoil. Especially with Carly. She genuinely seemed to believe he was capable of anything, and he was _not_ going to make a fool of himself in front of her.

"Besides," he added, after a pause that she didn't seem to notice, "you're drunk. You'd probably forget about it by morning anyway, so it wouldn't do you any good."

"Oh. That makes sense," she said, in a tone that suggested that she hadn't quite followed his line of logic. "Will you stay with me, then?"

He thought it over. "If you promise to lie down and go to sleep." After all, he thought, if someone didn't keep an eye on her, she might get up and do something _really_ stupid.

She nodded agreeably and went to do as she was told. She managed to kick off her shoes and lay her glasses on her bedside table before dropping onto her bed. She cuddled around the pillow, her head resting on one end and her arms wrapped around the other, her knees tucked up against her chest. She was not, Jack observed, any more graceful asleep than awake. Without her glasses, her face looked younger and softer, and for a fleeting moment he felt a pang of something he couldn't quite name. It gave him a desire to protect her, to make sure that somehow everything turned out all right for her. He shook his head, surprised at himself - it wasn't like him to get so mushy over someone. Perhaps he had been more affected by the alcohol than he liked to admit.

He pulled up a chair and settled down next to her, dutifully keeping watch and letting his thoughts wander. Yuji had been right, he thought. Somehow the four of them had gotten tangled up together, Carly and himself most of all. He wondered now if he would ever get free again. The thought made him a little claustrophobic. After all, his first try at having friends hadn't turned out so well.

"Jack?" Carly murmured.

"What now?"

"Would you kiss me in the morning instead?"

"We'll see," he told her.

That seemed to satisfy her, and she settled down again. After a few moments, her breathing slowed. Still, Jack stayed and watched her, and reflected with some resignation that if he was going to be stuck with someone, he could have done much worse.

* * *

Spiderwebs wavered gently in a few eddies of air, too small to even be called breezes. The fragile strands glinted redly in the candlelight. They were almost beautiful, in this place where so little else was, but Rudger was not pleased by the sight. He glared at them - or rather, beyond them. Within the web of glistening silk, misty images could be seen of faces peering back at him.

"Idiots," Rudger snapped. "What the hell did you two think you were doing?"

No one answered. Misty looked away, avoiding his gaze, while Demak merely glared back with a sullen expression.

"Just brilliant," Rudger continued. "Picking a fight with the Signers in public for no good reason, and you couldn't even _finish_ it. No, you two had to stand around and fight _with each other_. That's quality performance. It's a good thing for you two we had someone in the Arcadia Movement to smooth things over for us. But you didn't even know that, did you?"

"How are we supposed to keep track?" Demak complained.

"It wasn't my fault," said Misty. "Demak reneged on his agreement."

"I don't care," said Rudger. "I'm not interested in your petty squabbles. As far as I'm concerned, the Signers are fair game for anyone at any time. I don't care if it's you who finishes them off, or someone else, or if they get run down by a bus! If I catch you two fighting again, I'm sending you both back to hell myself! In fact," he added, "I think I should come over there myself and keep an eye on things."

"Over here?" asked Misty. "Are we making a move, then?"

"Soon. Very soon," said Rudger. "There are a few more pieces that have to fall into place, but... why not? I think I've waited long enough."

"Should we come meet you?" asked Misty, somewhat apprehensively.

"No. Carry on as usual. I'll send for you when it's time," said Rudger. "Right now, I think I'm in the mood to go and welcome our newest member."

Demak looked interested. "You mean...?"

"Oh, he's just waking up now, I figure," said Rudger. "I think I'm going to like this one. At least he knows how to work in a team. Just a little more and we'll have everyone we need..."

His gaze strayed to another web that was being constructed in a corner. It had an unfinished look about it - there were still two sections to it that had not been filled in entirely yet. Rudger had no way of knowing who was meant to fill those roles, but he was confident enough that the time would come soon. Until then, though... there was nothing wrong with hurrying things along a bit.

"You two go back to whatever it is you're wasting time with," he ordered. "Stay on the alert. I'll call you when I need you."

He swept his hand through the webs, breaking the connection. Then, with deliberate strides, he began to walk.

At first, there were stairs. He climbed them carefully - many of them were broken and crumbling, or just not there at all, but a man with the power of the spider god in him could always find his way across gaps. It was only slow going because he chose to make it so. It had been many years since he had climbed these stairs, and the feeling of the stuffy atmosphere of his underground home giving way to fresh air and gentle breezes was strange to him.

Finally, he emerged on the lip of a vast crater at the center of a blackened landscape. There was nothing as far as he could see but rubble, broken glass and twisted bits of corroding metal. The sky was clear that night, with only a sliver of moon, but even the light of the stars was enough to make Rudger pull his hood up to shield his eyes as he walked, until they began to adjust to the new light level.

He picked up his pace as he drew nearer to the areas where people were still living. He smiled a little, vaguely amused at the thought of so many people with so many little worries, thinking they had a difficult life because they lived in this slum, never realizing just how much danger was lurking beneath their feet. None of them paid any attention to him as he swept past them.

Someone did pay attention, though, when he walked up to the Security gate.

"Hey, you!" a uniformed officer barked. "Get away from here!"

Rudger ignored him and continued advancing calmly. A few others joined the first officer, their guns held at ready. He smiled at them.

"Are you pointing those at me?" he asked. "What do you think you're going to do, kill me?"

"I'm warning you, get back," the officer ordered. "You can't come through here."

"Oh, but I can," said Rudger.

He continued strolling towards them, and the officers opened fire. Electric sparks crackled and danced across his body, but he kept walking without even flinching. The Security men backed away with exclamations of shock. Rudger gave them a toothy grin.

"My turn," he said.

He flung his arms out wide. Spiders, each as big as his palm, began crawling out from his sleeves, dropping to the ground with audible plops. They rushed towards the Security officers with surprising speed, and the men broke ranks and fled in panic. They couldn't move as fast as the spiders, though. Rudger ignored them all and made his way into the Security tunnel. Behind him, he heard a few screams, which were abruptly cut off. A moment later, a patter of legs behind him told him that his pets were returning. They scurried up his legs and disappeared beneath his cloak. He smiled to himself.

"So much for my little brother's improvements," he said. "Let's see what else he's been up to."

**To Be Continued...**


	18. Jack Practices

**_Author's Note:_** Early update this week! The timing was too good to resist. Happy Valentine's Day to you all, and thank you for your support!

**Jack Practices**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Crow's first reaction upon awakening was to panic. How could he let himself fall asleep? Who knew what Kiryu was going to do while no one was watching him? If he did something stupid, or didn't bother to watch for approaching Security officers...

Then reality sank in, and he dropped back against his pillow with a sigh of relief. Safe. He was _safe_. There would be no more Security officers after him, not now or ever again. Some of them had actually turned out to be pretty decent people, now that he'd gotten to know them a little bit. Officer Sagiri had called him last night and let him know that someone had checked on his kids, and they were all happy and well taken care of.

That had been just after dinner, which had been a pleasant affair. The old man that Yusei had sent him to had welcomed him like a long-lost relative and given him the run of the house. It was quite a place: it looked like it had been there since shortly after the age of the dinosaurs, a small house that had been added to and expanded upon for generations, until it sprawled in every direction, rooms fitting against other rooms in unlikely ways. It was also crammed basement to attic with junk. Crow gathered that the house had been passed down through generations of Yanagis, each of whom had added their own special touches, filling it with family heirlooms and souvenirs of far-flung places. The current resident had contributed most of the latter himself, on journeys that he'd insisted on telling Crow all about over dinner. That had been fine with Crow. He had been more concerned with the food, so he had nodded and made appropriate listening noises while the old man had chattered away, obviously thrilled to have a captive audience for his tales.

After the meal was over, Crow had been too exhausted and emotionally drained to do anything else, so Yanagi had directed him to an unused bedroom. It had obviously not seen use in years, and was full of dust and cobwebs, but the bed was soft and the blankets were warm, and Crow would have been willing to sleep in a cardboard box by that point. And it had its own attached bath! Crow had never in his life known the pleasure of having a private room with his own bath. Now he stretched lazily, savoring the feeling of knowing that he was safe, and that someone else would be taking care of him for a while. After doing nothing but worry about Kiryu for days, it was wonderful not to have any responsibilities.

_Days? Feels like years,_ he mused.

He turned onto his side, feeling his mood dampen. All that time, he'd been wishing that something would happen to get Kiryu out of his hair, and now he was gone - forever. After all that work, he had still died. Maybe if Crow had been a little quicker on the uptake, if he had gotten to Yusei sooner...

He gave up on that line of thought almost as quickly as he'd started it. Kiryu had known from the beginning what he'd wanted to do. He'd wanted to kill Yusei or die trying, and it was doubtful that anything Crow could have done short of tying him up and dragging him back to jail himself would have stopped him. Blaming himself now was pointless. The best thing he could do now was to honor the memory of his friend - the one who had worked to make Satellite a better place - and try not to think too hard about how things had ended.

Crow kicked off his blankets. He never had been the kind who could laze about all day, even if there was nothing particular that needed doing. Instead, he took a shower, just because it was there to take, amusing himself by trying out all the soaps and shampoos that were lying around. Then he went downstairs to see if he could find Yanagi.

That proved to be easier said than done, since the house was built like a maze and crammed with so much stuff that he had to traverse some of the halls sideways, but he followed the scent of cooking and managed to find his way to the kitchen. Yanagi was scurrying around there, in the midst of making omelettes.

"Oh, you're awake!" the old man exclaimed. "I was going to let you rest a while longer."

"Nah, I can't lie in bed all day," said Crow. "Need a hand with something?"

"No, no, it's fine. Just make yourself at home."

Crow obliged by dropping into a kitchen chair and waiting for breakfast to be ready. That lasted all of thirty seconds. Then he got up and began wandering around, investigating shelves and cabinets. Yanagi didn't seem to mind him snooping, after all, and there was a lot to look at. Even in the kitchen, there were knickknacks of various sorts stuffed wherever they would fit. Something that looked suspiciously like a stuffed alligator was perched on top of a high cupboard, and a pile of rusting swords propped in a corner. He wondered what all of this would sell for if the old man ever decided to hold a garage sale. Crow's eye was caught by a set of statues and bits of pottery arranged across a shelf, particularly a pair of feathery figures. At first, he thought they were birds, and he moved closer for a better look. Instead, he found a pair of human shapes with wings strapped to their arms, and was mildly disappointed. He liked birds.

"What are these supposed to be?" he asked. "Angels or something?"

"Hm?" said Yanagi, looking up from his cooking. He squinted at the shelf. "I can't quite... Oh, those! No, those aren't angels. That's Daedalus and Icarus."

"Daedalus?" Crow repeated. "Like the bridge?"

"I don't know anything about a bridge," said Yanagi. "It's an old, old story, from the time of the ancient Greeks."

"Heh, well, that's all Greek to me," said Crow. "Tell ya what, you tell me your story and I'll tell you mine."

"That sounds like a fair trade to me!" Yanagi agreed.

Once breakfast was ready, he pulled up a chair across from Crow at the rickety old table (probably antique; definitely in need of repair) and settled in for a bout of serious storytelling. He seemed far more interested in talking than in eating, gesticulating with his chopsticks while his omelette cooled in front of him.

"Now, Daedalus was a great inventor, thousands of years ago. He got on the bad side of an old king named Minos - and how that happened is a story in itself, let me tell you! Anyway, Minos decided that he was going to keep Daedalus from getting into any more trouble, so he locked him up at the top of a tall tower with his son Icarus. Minos figured they'd never get down, but Daedauls was too smart for him. He built two pairs of wings with feathers and wax, and when everything was ready, the two of them strapped on their wings and flew away. Daedalus warned his son not to fly too high, where the sun would melt the wax, or too low, where the water would bog down his feathers, but Icarus didn't listen to him. He got so carried away that he flew up towards the sun, and sure enough, his wings went right to pieces. He fell into the ocean and drowned, and poor Daedalus had to go on without him."

"Wow," said Crow. "That's rough. Poor guy... if that happened to one of my kids, I'd flip out."

"Guess you'd better not annoy any kings," said Yanagi.

Crow gave the old man a look. He couldn't quite tell if he was joking or not. Crow shrugged.

"Guess it makes sense that they would name that old bridge after Daedalus," said Crow. "Better than Icarus, anyway. We're not sure the guy fell in."

"What's this bridge all about, anyway?" Yanagi asked.

"Oh, it's kind of a legend on Satellite, but it's all true," said Crow. "Just after the disaster happened, there was a guy on the island who would stand on the beach every day and look out over the water at the city. Then one day, he got hold of some tools and some scrap metal, and he started building a bridge. Everyone said he was crazy. I mean, how could one guy with a hammer build a bridge all the way to the other side? But he didn't listen - he just kept at it. And after a while, other people started joining in. It was just a couple at first, but the more who came, the more other people noticed what was going on and joined in. Pretty soon there was a whole big bunch of people out there, working together to get this bridge built, and they were really getting somewhere. Wasn't long before they had something that really looked like a bridge!"

"So why isn't there a bridge?" asked Yanagi.

"I'm getting to that! Anyway, the Security guys didn't like that this guy was building a bridge, and rallying other people to help him to it, so they came to arrest him. And do you think he went quietly? Hell, no! He got on his D-Wheel and drove straight for the bridge. That bike launched up into the air, and wings folded out of it, and he flew right up into the sky and disappeared. That's how they tell it, anyway," said Crow. "That's why they call him the legendary D-Wheeler. My bike is patterned after his. He's my hero!"

"Your bike has wings?"

"You better believe it!" said Crow. "I'll show you later - Officer Sagiri said she'd get it back for me, and then you'll see! It's a special bike. A friend passed it to me a couple of years ago, after he..."

He trailed off. Yanagi gave him a sympathetic look.

"Your friend?" he asked gently.

Crow nodded, his throat tight. "Yeah. Yeah, it's still hard to believe. It's just... Kiryu was my hero too, you know? I thought he was really going to make a difference. He was the one who was going to turn Satellite into a place we could be proud of living in, and instead, he let it all go to his head and started ordering me to do stupid stuff like beat up on little kids just because they were playing at having their own gang. That's when I walked out on him, but he got worse from there on in. I guess I shouldn't be surprised he ended up this way..." Crow sighed. "Man, why do people have to let you down?"

"I just don't know," said Yanagi. "I will tell you something, though. On the beach closest to Satellite, there's the remains of an old bridge. Nobody seems to know who built it, but..."

Crow brightened a little. "For real? So he really made it! That's great. I always wondered what happened to him. I kinda hope he's still hanging out over here, don't you?"

"I'm sure he's fine," said Yanagi. "He sounds like a resourceful character."

"Yeah, you're probably right," said Crow. He leaned back in his chair. "Kinda nice to think he's over here, hanging out with the city folk and fooling them all into thinking he's one of them. Be one in the eye for all those people who say we're second-class just because we're from the island. Heh, wouldn't it be something if he was somebody important now, and no one knew?"

Yanagi chuckled. "It certainly would be. Hm, now I'll be looking at everyone in the government, wondering if he could be one of them."

"I sure hope so," said Crow, enjoying the daydream. "I hope he's up there now, planning something big to straighten those Security guys out..."

* * *

"Director Goodwin? Are you busy?"

Rex looked up from his work to fix Mikage with a look that made words unnecessary. Asking if he was busy was a bit like asking if he was still breathing.

"What is it?" he asked brusquely.

"There's been... an incident," she said. "On Satellite. Something... very odd."

Rex went rigid. Any incident on Satellite that could be described as "very odd" sent up red flags.

"What kind of incident?" he asked, keeping his voice steady.

"Some of the guards at the tunnel were attacked last night," said Mikage. "They were found lying unconscious, but the strange thing is, they appeared to be tied up with... well, spider webs."

"Spider webs," Rex repeated.

"Yes, sir. We're not _sure_ that's what it is, but..."

"Never mind," said Rex. "I have a suspicion I know what this is about. Leave it to me."

Mikage gave him a baffled look, but bowed and said, "Yes, sir. Of course."

She departed, for which he was grateful. This was something he wanted to face on his own.

_Spiders. It has to be Rudger. What is he doing? Has the time come so soon, then?_

Rex stared out the window. His office was naturally the best one, with a splendid view of the city spread out below him. Normally, the sight of it filled him with justifiable pride. It was a beautiful sight: pristine and gleaming, every inch of it looking freshly scrubbed. Now he stared at it and wondered where one went to find a spiderweb in all of that.

"I'm going out," he told his receptionist. "I'm not sure when I'll return. Forward my calls to voicemail."

He left the office and made his way into the wide world. For a while, he simply wandered aimlessly, lost in his own thoughts. It had been so long since he'd seen his brother, but if he was leaving Satellite, coming here...

_I want to see him again. Even if it means the world is coming to an end._

As a child, Rex has always been quiet and bookish, with few close friends. Rudger had been his powerful protector, his source of safety. He had grown up thinking that Rudger was invincible. In an odd way, it still felt true - he hadn't even let death stop him from doing what he'd set his mind on doing. But at the same time, he was out of reach, and Rex had been left utterly on his own, forced to muddle along without help or support. Losing Dr. Fudo and Mrs. Fudo was bad enough, but he could have borne it if Rudger had been with him. Without him, the world had seemed a dark and dismal place. Rex had tried to fill the void by building up a paradise on earth, but when all was said and done...

Rex stopped walking, realizing that he had come to the entrance to one of the city's many parks. What better place to look for a bug? He took to the paths, walking slowly, scanning the vegetation. How undignified, he thought, for a man of his standing to be grubbing around in the bushes in search of creepy-crawlies. After some snooping around under the bushes, he finally found what he was looking for: a fat brown spider. He gently scooped it up and cupped it in his hands. The spider sat placidly in his palm, as though it knew what he wanted. He could almost believe it was watching him.

"Find Rudger Goodwin," said Rex. "Tell him his brother wants to see him."

The spider scuttled in a small circle, as though giving the arachnid equivalent of a nod, and then leapt from his hand, dropping down on a length of silk and disappearing into the grass. Rex stood very still, not wanting to break the thread, and he waited.

Long minutes passed. Rex forced himself to be patient. Communicating with the dead was rarely a simple matter. At last, he was rewarded by the sound of heavy footsteps, and he turned to see a man approaching him through the trees. Though the day was warm and sunny, he wore a heavy cloak with the hood pulled up over his face.

"Hello, Rex," he said. "Nice place you've got here."

"Hello, Brother," said Rex softly. Then, more forcefully: "What are you doing here?"

Rudger gave a harsh laugh. "What am I doing here? You called me, didn't you?"

"That isn't what I mean, and you know it."

"I'm running an errand," said Rudger. "What's it to you?"

"Anything you do in my city, to my people, is my business."

"Don't take that high-and-mighty tone with me," Rudger snapped. "Do you think I'm going to spare you because we used to be brothers?"

"We still are brothers," Rex retorted, his temper rising. "I have not forgotten, even if you have."

"Pah, well, forget it," said Rudger. "Look at me! Take a good look. I'm a walking corpse."

"And yet, you still live."

Rudger shook his head. "Not enough. Look, I know you think I'm invincible, but you're wrong. Even the gods were wrong about me."

He pushed the sleeve of his shirt up, and Rex felt a sudden shock. Rudger's right arm was mottled with blue and purple markings, like old bruises, sullen and ugly. It was as though some toxin was seeping through his veins, leaving poisoned and dead tissue in its wake.

"You see?" said Rudger. "Not even the gods can save me now. I'm coming apart at the seams."

Rex, for once, was at a loss for resources. "But I thought..."

"That I'd saved myself by cutting off my arm? Turns out there's more to being a Signer than a pretty red mark," said Rudger bitterly. "So if you had any fancy ideas about saving me, forget it. There's not enough of me left to be worth saving." He gave a slightly unhinged laugh. "I don't even know where I leave off and the god begins anymore."

"I don't believe that," said Rex. "If there wasn't anything left of the real you, you wouldn't have come here."

"That doesn't make a difference," said Rudger. "Dammit, what does it take to get through to you? Look, I'm going to fight this battle because it's all I've got to live for now. There's nothing you can do to change that. The next time we meet, we're going to be enemies."

"Is it starting, then?" asked Rex.

Rudger considered a moment. "Not yet. Soon. Another day or two, maybe. There are still a few more things... Why am I even telling you this?"

Rex smiled faintly. "To make it a fair fight?"

"You _are_ going to fight, then," said Rudger. It wasn't quite a question; there was a rumble in his voice that implied an _or else_.

"I have set my machinery in motion," said Rex. "I daresay you will have enough of a challenge when the time comes."

"You don't sound very concerned," said Rudger warningly.

"I have another way in mind."

"There is no other way!" Rudger snapped. "You're either with us or against us, and I don't want you with us."

"There is always another way," said Rex, "and I intend to take it."

"What way is this?" asked Rudger suspiciously.

"I would rather not say," Rex replied. "Not here. Not yet."

"When?"

Rex considered. "I'll tell you if you'll duel me. Win or lose, I'll tell you what I'm doing."

"You're up to something," said Rudger.

"Yes."

"Fine, then," said Rudger. "Be that way. I'm busy right now, but I'll send for you when I'm ready."

"Don't forget," said Rex. "And don't put me off until it's too late."

"Demands, demands," said Rudger. "I won't make any promises. If it's really important, you can come looking for me."

"Very well," said Rex.

He stood a moment, gazing longingly at his brother. Rudger's once-tanned skin had an ashy cast to it, and his eyes were strange - black where they should be white, with his pupils contracted to pinpoints even in the shade, as if even that much daylight was too much for him. His golden hair had faded until it was nearly white. He really did look like the walking dead; he looked as though something essential had been stripped away from him.

_I really can't save him..._

He fought back despair. He _would_ change things. There had to be a way. He would _make_ a way.

"I will see you again soon," he said.

"Yeah, sure," said Rudger. He hesitated, and then added softly, "Don't do anything stupid, Rex."

Rex gave him a grim smile. "It's as you said. This fight is all I have to live for."

"Stubborn," said Rudger, shaking his head. "Don't forget what I said. Next time we meet..."

"We are enemies," Rex finished. "I won't forget. I'm counting on it."

Rudger gave him one last suspicious look.

"Good," he said. "Until next time, then."

He turned on his heel and trudged away. Rex kept his gaze fixed on him, watching him until he could no longer be seen, and wishing he could follow him.

_Someday,_ he promised himself. _One day soon..._

* * *

"Are you going out again?" Rua complained.

Ruka avoided her brother's gaze. "I have to learn this. It's important."

"But you're never home. You're always off with those people. We never play together anymore."

"I'm sorry," said Ruka miserably. "I just... I have to finish this. It's important."

"Why?"

"Because... something happened," said Ruka. "I had a... a sort of an accident, and somebody got hurt. I have to learn what I'm doing so it won't happen again. I don't want you to get hurt."

"Ruka..."

"I'm sorry," she said again, and hurried for the door.

She made her way to the Arcadia building in a troubled frame of mind. She hated fighting with her brother. The worst part was that he was right - she really hadn't been spending much time with him these last few days. Ever since the strange incident that had occurred during her duel with Aki, Ruka had been spending every spare moment at the Arcadia building, practicing. She couldn't tell if it was doing any good or not, but after what had happened to Divine, she wasn't going to take any chances. She had been so sure he was dead, and the fact that when she had returned with help, he had been awake and talking had only diminished, not removed, her unease. She had to follow every lead she could, until she understood what she was doing and how something like that could happen.

Ruka let herself into the building, walking swiftly past the receptionist, who gave her a nod as she entered, and went to meet Aki. After the disastrous duel, they did not go to Aki's room again, but instead used one of many quiet study rooms that had been made for just that purpose. When Ruka arrived, she found Aki poring over her cards, but she looked up when Ruka arrived.

"Hello," she said, giving her one of her not-quite-smiles. "You look troubled. Is something wrong?"

"My brother is mad at me," said Ruka.

Aki looked sad. "It's not uncommon. Most of us here have families who don't understand."

"But I _want_ him to understand," said Ruka plaintively. "If I could just figure out what I'm doing..."

"Maybe you need to talk to Divine," Aki said. "He knows ways of speeding things along."

"Really?" asked Ruka, feeling hope flare.

"Yes," said Aki hesitantly. "They are... more difficult than what we're doing. You may not like it."

"I don't care," said Ruka. "I want to be able to control my powers so I'll be able to keep Rua safe. I'll do whatever it takes."

"In that case, I'll talk to him," said Aki. "Wait here, please."

Aki wandered off. Ruka, unsure what else to do, sat down in the chair that Aki had vacated and swung her feet back and forth in a nervous rhythm. She still didn't feel entirely comfortable around Divine. Maybe it was because she felt guilty about hurting him, but it was hard to be sure. He had never been anything but pleasant towards her on the few occasions she'd met him, but...

A few minutes later, Aki returned with her mentor in tow. As always, he looked cool and calm, his expression fixed in a faint smile.

"So," he said, "Aki tells me that you're feeling a little impatient with your progress."

Ruka nodded, her mouth dry.

"Well, I might be able to help with that," Divine replied. "Why don't you step into my study for a moment, and I'll see what I can do for you."

He offered her his hand, and it took a moment for Ruka to realize that he meant for her to take it. She forced herself to close her fingers around his. He smiled encouragingly and began leading her towards the elevator.

"This isn't going to hurt, is it?" she asked.

"Hm? Now, whatever gave you that idea?" Divine asked.

"Aki said it might be difficult," said Ruka, "and I might not like it."

"Aki is older and stronger than you," said Divine. "I ask things of her I wouldn't ask of a child. I intend to start you with something simple. You shouldn't find this too unpleasant."

"Okay," said Ruka, still uneasy.

The elevator doors closed around them, and Ruka tried not to fidget as they rose toward the top floor. She wished Divine would let go of her hand. He was wearing some sort of cologne, something spicy that tickled her nose and made her want to sneeze. He made no effort to talk to her, simply staring off into space and smiling vaguely, as though he had something pleasant on his mind that had nothing to do with her. Ruka was relieved when the elevator finally stopped and let them out. Divine escorted her to a little room like a library, with lots of expensive-looking leather-bound books and antique-looking furniture. Ruka wondered fleetingly if he ever actually read the books, or if they were just there for decoration.

"Just sit down anywhere and make yourself comfortable," said Divine. He wandered over to a little nook where there were some cabinets and an electric kettle. "Do you like tea? Hot chocolate, maybe? I only have the powdered kind, I'm afraid."

"Tea, please," said Ruka.

"Good choice," Divine said. "Sugar? Honey? I like a dash of cream in mine, myself."

He pottered around with the kettle for a bit, and eventually produced two cups of tea. He passed one to her before sitting down to begin doctoring his own cup. Ruka picked up the cup, balancing it carefully in both hands, and took a careful sip. It was black tea, sweetened liberally with honey, but there was another taste in it she didn't recognize.

"What's this?" she asked.

"Oh, the tea? It's a kind of chai," he answered. "Black tea with various spices in it. I find it rather bracing after a long day's work, but if you don't like it, I'm sure I can find something else..."

"No, this is fine," she said quickly. With him being so accommodating, it was hard to bring herself to ask for anything else. She took another sip and decided that now that she was getting used to it, it was really quite all right, just different.

"Now let's relax a while and get to know each other better," said Divine. "How old are you, Ruka?"

"Eleven," she said.

"And you have a brother, I believe? Older or younger?"

"Same as me - we're twins."

"Is that so? That must be fun," said Divine. "How about your parents? How do they feel about this training of yours?"

"They don't really know," Ruka admitted. "They don't... they aren't around very much. They both work most of the time."

Divine looked concerned. "You mean they leave you two all by yourselves? What do you eat?"

"We have a cook and a maid and things," said Ruka. "But mostly it's just us by ourselves. We eat out a lot."

"That sounds lonely," said Divine. "I'm glad you and Aki are becoming friends. It seems like you two could both use someone to talk to."

Ruka nodded. "Aki's nice. She doesn't smile much, though."

"She's had a difficult life," Divine replied. "I do my best for her, of course, but a girl needs female friends, don't you think?"

Ruka nodded. She was beginning to feel odd, strangely disconnected, as though her body was a long way away. She blinked a few times, trying to clear her head. A strange rainbow edge seemed to have crept into her vision, giving everything a hazy glow.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Nothing to be afraid of," said Divine smoothly. "It sounds like your tea is starting to work. Are you feeling a little sleepy?"

Ruka shook her head, trying to order her thoughts.

"You drugged my tea?" she asked incredulously.

"You did ask me to help you," said Divine. "These drugs are to help open your mind and release any mental blockages that might be keeping you from unleashing your full strength. It's best just to relax and let them do their work."

"But... but..."

"Don't worry. I'll look after you while you're out."

Ruka wanted to say that this was the last thing she wanted, for him to look after her while she was completely helpless, but she couldn't seem to get her mouth to form the words. Her head drooped of its own accord, and her eyes slid slowly closed.

_I don't want to fall asleep... Got to stay awake... Got to..._

But it was no good. Her thoughts slipped away from her, and she fell into unconsciousness.

Divine stood up and regarded her a moment. He called her name a few times and gave her a light shake, testing to see if she would wake up. Satisfied that she was out cold, he carefully scooped her up in his arms and carried her away.

* * *

Jack Atlus was discovering, as many young men had before him, that true love was complicated.

In this case, it had turned out that his glorious new machine came with a few unexpected quid pro quos attached. It was not enough, Yuji said, for him to simply get on and ride. His informal "get on and hope you don't fall off" training he had gotten in Satellite was not enough to teach him to handle such a sophisticated piece of machinery. Jack might be naturally gifted, but nobody was perfect, and Yuji was prepared to see to it that Jack learned to drive the thing properly or died trying. Since it was Saturday, there were no classes that morning, and Yuji had hauled Jack out of bed at the crack of dawn and set him to work practicing.

"That was sloppy!" Yuji shouted. "Do it again and do it right this time! Take it easy on those turns!"

"I did it right the first time!" Jack shouted back.

"You skidded! I saw you do it, so don't try to pretend you didn't! If there had been gravel or water there, you would have gone out of control for sure. I know you can do better than that!"

"You're a slave driver," Jack complained, but he fired up the engine and began another lap.

Carly leaned on the fence and watched him rush by.

_That's Jack for you,_ she thought, with a mixture of wistfulness and admiration. _He always has to be the best._

Unlike Jack, who seemed to be having a good time despite his grumbling, Carly was feeling a sense of letdown. Part of it probably had to do with the lingering affects of the champagne, which had left her with a headache and a queasy stomach. Part of it was that they had opted to throw a party last night instead of going out and dueling as they usually did. She had gotten used to making a post every night and waking up to find out what everyone was saying about it, and the lack of feedback was throwing her off her stride. True, the posts she had already made were generating more than their fair amount of discussion. She had made it her business to comb through all the major news outlets every day, and had been pleased to see that she and Jack had gone mainstream. There had been a number of discussions on whether or not Jack was really from Satellite or if he was merely posing to get attention, on whether or not he should be caught and shipped back where he came from or even put in jail, about the nature of his relationship with the girl who seemed to know exactly where he'd be dueling every night...

_Too bad the speculating is more interesting than real life,_ she thought.

And that was what was really bothering her. She might have been a bit tipsy last night, but she hadn't been so far gone that she couldn't remember what she'd said and done - maybe not every word, but a few things stood out in her mind.

She remembered, for example, that Jack had refused to kiss her. Oh, he'd been nice about it, in his usual aloof way, but he'd still turned her down, and he hadn't brought it up again when she'd seen him in the morning. She knew perfectly well that he'd drunk less than any of them, so she was sure he hadn't forgotten. The only conclusion that she could draw was that he just didn't want to. Which meant, in turn, that he didn't want _her_.

She sighed as he raced past her on his D-Wheel, leaping off ramps and weaving through obstacles in a dazzling display of power and control. He really was amazing, she thought. No matter what he was doing, he pushed himself to do it as well as he could - better than anyone else did it. His pride and confidence were overwhelming. And yet, despite his aloof and sometimes prickly manner, he'd been genuinely kind to her. He always seemed to be protecting her, whether it was from that strange Security officer or from Saiga and Yuji's teasing. He'd even been teaching her to duel. She'd let herself believe that he cared about her.

Someday he'd be the greatest duelist this city had ever seen. He'd have his pick of admirers, beautiful women who would be graceful and well-spoken. He wouldn't have any need of a clumsy, stammering girl with bad eyesight and no fashion sense and her face permanently disfigured by a criminal's mark...

"Argh!" she shouted, and slammed her fists on the fence. Then she looked around, embarrassed, hoping no one had noticed her outburst. Yuji, however, had his eyes riveted on Jack, who was too caught up in his driving to notice her. With her face still burning, she turned and began marching towards the house.

The movement finally caught Yuji's attention.

"Bored already?" he asked.

"Oh, um," she stammered, "I was just going to, um, get something to drink."

"Heh, yeah, it is getting pretty hot out here, now that you mention it," said Yuji. "Probably even hotter out on the asphalt... Okay, Jack! Take a break! You're losing your cheering section."

Jack parked his bike, skidding dramatically to a halt.

"Showoff," Yuji accused, grinning.

"You told me to stop," said Jack simply.

"I'm going to go snag us some drinks," said Yuji. "Want anything?"

"Whatever you're having is fine."

"I'll get it," Carly offered. "I should start lunch soon, anyway..." She wasn't sure she wanted to be left alone with Jack right now, in the mood she was in. She was liable to end up saying something stupid and _really_ mess things up.

"Forget it. I'll do the cooking today," said Yuji. "You two just relax a while."

He waved to them and headed for the house. Carly hesitated a moment, then began to follow him.

"And where are you going now?" Jack asked her.

She looked at him guiltily. "Um... inside?"

"What for?" he asked. "Yuji already said he'd take care of everything."

"I don't need a reason!" she said. "I just want to go in, that's all."

"Are you avoiding me?"

"No!" she said, blushing furiously.

Jack glared at her. "You _are_ avoiding me! What's your problem?"

"I haven't got a problem!"

"You're a lousy liar," said Jack. "You're redder than a stop light. What stupid thing has you all worked up?"

"Maybe I just know when I'm not wanted!"

"Carly..." he said, rolling his eyes in exasperation. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Then maybe you should pay more attention to what's going on around you."

"Well, I'm paying attention now! Stop being ridiculous and just tell me what your problem is."

Carly spluttered, stuck for words. What good sense she had said that she should just end the conversation there and go inside before she said something very stupid that she would probably regret later. Bad enough that he didn't want her, without him thinking she was an idiot into the bargain. She was not going to make a fool of herself in front of Jack. She couldn't.

"You didn't even _think_ about kissing me, did you!" she blurted, and clapped her hands over her mouth in horror.

Jack laughed incredulously. "Is _that_ your problem?"

"It's not funny!" she said.

"Is this about last night? I didn't even think you remembered," he said.

She scowled at him. "I didn't drink _that_ much."

"Fine, whatever." He pressed a hand to his face. "I can't believe I'm having this conversation."

"You were the one who made me say it! You told me to tell you what was wrong and I did!"

"You should have just said something to begin with instead of storming around thinking I know what's going on!" he retorted. "I'm not a mind reader, you know."

"It doesn't matter anyway! If you were going to do anything you would have done it by now."

"What makes you so sure?"

She glared at him, temper rising. "Why are you even making me say it? It's obvious you're not interested, so why are we talking about it?"

"What do you mean, _obvious_? You're jumping to conclusions!"

"Well, what else am I supposed to think? If you won't even kiss a girl when you're invited then you obviously don't want her!"

"Did you ever think I might have other reasons?"

Both of them were standing inches away from each other, shouting at the top of their lungs. Carly could feel her eyes burning and knew she was probably only moments away from bursting into tears, but even through that, she couldn't help but think that Jack was particularly stunning when he was angry.

"What other reason is there?" she demanded.

Jack's cheeks suddenly reddened. He turned away and muttered something inaudible.

"What did you say?"

He turned and glared furiously at her. "I said I've never done it and I don't know how!"

"You... what?" asked Carly, stunned. "Never? But you... you're..."

"From Satellite," he finished. "There's no high school there, nobody goes to the movies to restaurants or walks on the beach or - or whatever it is people do in the city. You survive, that's all. You ought to know that."

"Oh. I just thought... Nevermind," she said. More quietly, she added, "I haven't either."

He gave her a mystified look. "Why not?"

"Isn't it obvious?" she asked. "I mean, look at me. I'm not pretty, or..."

"I see you. There's nothing wrong with how you look," he said. "You look like Carly, that's all."

"You... you think I'm..." Carly was reduced to blushing and stammering, and turned away to regain her composure.

"Look," he said, "I don't know what there is between us. I don't know what to call this feeling. I only know you're different from anyone else. Whatever that means."

"Oh," she said. She was quiet a moment. "You know, if you still wanted to kiss me... you'd be my first, so you'd still be the best I've ever had. You know. If you wanted to."

"I don't know if that's the same thing," he said.

She could see him wavering. It was the first time she'd ever seen him look genuinely nervous about something, and his look of vulnerability tugged at her heartstrings. She decided in an instant that the best thing she could do for him was to take the decision out of his hands.

It went badly, of course. She made the mistake of closing her eyes before she kissed him, and it took her some fumbling to connect with his lips, and for the first few seconds he was too surprised to do anything to help her. Then he seemed to get the idea, and he cupped his hand beneath her chin to guide her. She sighed and leaned against him, feeling her knees go weak. They stayed that way for a long time, and when he finally let her go, she remained with her arms around him and her head resting against his chest.

"Wow," she said softly. "That was... that was kind of a mess, wasn't it?"

"I told you it would be."

"It was still nice."

"Of course it was," he said, with a return of his usual confidence. "Everything Jack Atlus does turns out right."

"I knew that," she said. She looked up at him over the rims of her glasses. "Though you know, if we did it again, it would probably be better. You know, now that we've kind of got the hang of it."

"That's true," he said. "And I should be the best at everything I do."

"Absolutely," she agreed, all seriousness. "You should practice."

A moment later, Saiga came outside with a couple of bottles of soda in his hands. He stared at them for a moment, then turned around and walked back inside. He went into the kitchen and put the drinks back in the fridge. Yuji, in the midst of making lunch, looked at him curiously.

"Don't they want their drinks?" he asked.

"I think they're busy," said Saiga.

Yuji blinked. "With what? I told Jack he could take a break..."

"Not that kind of busy," said Saiga.

"Then what... Oh. Oh! You mean they're _busy_." He turned his attention back to the stove for a moment, then looked back at Saiga. "Do you think that means they won't be back in time for lunch?"

Saiga considered a moment.

"I vote we start without them," he said.

**To Be Continued...**


	19. Ruka Sleepwalks

**Ruka Sleepwalks**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Misty was convinced that the end of the world was fast approaching. This was based less on any innate psychic powers she had, and more on a few general observations. The fact that Rudger was getting antsy was hard to miss. So was the fact that after a relatively long lull, two new Dark Signers had cropped up within days of each other. But most of it was just a sense of uneasiness in the back of her mind, in that dark place she tried not to think about too much, because someone else was in there. The dark god was growing restless, and she was sure this meant it would be emerging soon, a moment she looked forward to with both dread and longing. She knew the coming of the gods would bring devastation, and yet, the chance for revenge...

The end of the world was coming. The only sensible thing to do was to make a cup of tea and wait patiently for it to get there.

She was just sitting down when she heard a knock on her door. She smiled. Ordinarily she would have been irritated at being interrupted during one of her rare moments of peace and quiet, but this guest had perfect timing. She got up to open the door.

"Rua," she greeted. "It's good to see you. I wasn't expecting you so late."

He turned his eyes up at her, his expression full of worry.

"Can I talk to you?" he asked. "It's important."

"Of course," she said. "Please, come inside. I'll get you a drink."

Rua shuffled in and flopped onto the sofa.

"I'm worried about my sister," he said. "She just hasn't been herself lately."

Misty brought him a cup of tea and sat down across from him, arranging herself in an attitude of listening.

"Tell me all about it," she said encouragingly. "I'll do what I can to help."

"She's totally shut me out!" Rua complained. "She barely speaks to me anymore. All she does is hang out with Aki at that Arcadia place."

"I was afraid of that," said Misty.

"What do you mean?" asked Rua. "Do you know something? Tell me!"

"I didn't want to worry you," Misty answered, lowering her eyes. "Forgive me... I had meant to try to take care of it myself, and not get you involved. But you're already involved, aren't you? I just don't want you to do anything that will get you hurt..."

"I don't care," he said fiercely. "I just want to help Ruka."

"The truth is, yesterday I did some searching around the Arcadia building, and I managed to make a contact there - a man who was wronged by the Black Rose Witch, who wants to help me put a stop to her. He told me that the Witch and Izayoi Aki are one and the same."

She knew immediately that Rua was hooked. His eyes were the size of saucers.

"Is she going to get hurt?" he asked.

"I don't know," said Misty. "I'll tell you this, though - my brother was supposedly training with her when he was killed."

Rua jumped. "Really?"

Misty nodded sadly. "He went to the same school she did. He had powers, similar to mine, and he admired her ability. He asked if he could learn with her, and she led him into the Arcadia building, and he never came out."

Rua bounced to his feet. "We've got to go save Ruka! She's gonna get killed!"

"Be calm," said Misty. "I'm sure if we work together, we can think of something."

Actually, she had been thinking about this for quite some time. She had known from the moment she'd first seen his face that his fate was intertwined with Aki's, and she had cultivated his friendship accordingly, but she had not known immediately just how best to make use of him. At first, she had thought he might merely make a convenient spy. Recent developments, though, had given her some fresh ideas. Particularly now that she knew the head of the Arcadia Movement was one of their own...

Not that he knew what she was doing, either. You didn't tell anyone everything you knew.

"I've been watching these people for a long time," she said. "I think there is something I can do to help you, but you're going to have to do something for me in return. Do you think you can manage that?"

"I'll do anything if it will help my sister!" said Rua, nodding vigorously.

"Good. All I need for you to do," said Misty, "is to go to the office on the top floor of the Arcadia building, and find a room where they keep files on all their members. Find the file on Izayoi Aki and bring it to me - I'll wait for you outside the front door. The file should have the information we need to put a stop to her."

"How am I going to get all the way up there?" asked Rua. "Won't someone see me?"

"Of course they'll see you," said Misty. "They won't recognize you. They are used to seeing your sister come in and out all the time. Your twin sister. Who looks exactly like you."

"Huh? Oh!" said Rua, catching on. "I get it. Sure, no problem! I'll sneak right past them."

"Good boy," Misty said, smiling. "Just bring me the folder and leave the rest to me."

Rua nodded eagerly and bounded to his feet. He dashed for the door and was gone almost before Misty could react. She smiled. He hadn't even bothered to finish his tea. It was rather touching, really, how much he cared. She hoped she would be able to repay him, someday.

In just a little while, she would have everything she needed to break Aki's heart, just as she had broken Misty's, and with any luck, undermine Ruka's confidence as well. Not that Demark would appreciate what she was doing, but no matter. The important thing was that the gods would be satisfied.

And she would have her revenge.

* * *

It was very dark. Ruka looked around, trying to figure out where she was, and, more importantly, how to get out. There didn't seem to be anywhere to go to, just an endless expanse of darkness. The air was moist, and smelled of greenery and flowers, and the ground felt soft beneath her feet. A little breath of air, without enough force or direction to really be called a breeze, played around her, stirring her hair.

"Is this a dream?" she said aloud.

Memories tumbled through her head: talking to Divine, drinking tea, falling asleep. That was right - he'd drugged the tea, and now she was dreaming. Only this didn't _feel_ like a dream. She'd never had a dream she could smell before.

Gradually, her eyes began to adjust, and she realized that she couldn't see because it was night. Or had those stars actually appeared while she was standing and thinking? She looked up at them. They were larger than the stars she saw over the city, clear and bright as diamonds, shimmering in pearly colors. She stared up at them, fascinated. Dream or not, she had never seen a sky so beautiful.

"So, you have finally returned."

Ruka jumped. She whirled in place - and screamed, as the biggest lion she'd ever seen or imagined came out of the shadows.

"Shh," it said. "Peace. I won't hurt you."

"You... talk?" she said.

"Of course," said the lion. "My name is Regulus. I am a friend. I'm here to guide you."

"Is this a dream? Or is it real?"

"Yes," he said.

"Both?"

"You are dreaming," said Regulus, "but I am speaking to you through your dream. I am real, and so is what you are seeing. Do you remember this place?"

"No, I... Should I remember it?" she asked.

Regulus seemed to smile. "Your little friend might remember."

"Huh?" said Ruka. She looked around, and was rewarded by a cheery chirp. "Kuribon!"

"Kuri!" said the monster happily, and bounded into her arms. Ruka laughed and cuddled the monster, who trilled its delight.

"Now do you understand?" asked Regulus.

"Is this... where monsters come from?" Ruka asked.

Regulus nodded. "Look around. Nothing will hurt you while I am guarding you."

Ruka nodded and began to walk. While they had been talking, the scenery had resolved itself into grass and flowers, with some trees off in the distance on one hand and a lazily flowing on the other. The fog was breaking up, and Ruka realized that the sun was beginning to rise. The stars were beginning to fade now, but the flowers opening their petals were equally beautiful. Exotic birds were breaking out into song.

_This place feels so familiar. How can that be? I'm barely certain it's real..._

Still, the thought that she had been there before niggled at her, and she began to walk, breathing in the fragrance of the flowers and letting her mind wander. It really was a beautiful place. If there was nothing to call her back home, she would have happily stayed there forever...

_Wait..._

A scrap of memory trickled back to her. A promise - she had promised to stay here, once. When? Why? To whom? Details eluded her. How could she promise something to someone in this dream world? There wouldn't be anyone here but monsters...

But of course, you could make promises to monsters, if one spoke to you, and sometimes they did. They had been speaking to Ruka for some time, now. But not always. She frowned a little, trying to dredge up the memory that was trying to make itself known to her. She hadn't always been able to hear the voice of the spirits. She had played a completely different deck when she'd been very small. It had been quite a good deck, in fact, good enough that she'd been considered a child prodigy and allowed to play in tournaments with adults. Then one day, she'd collapsed in the middle of a duel, and when she'd woken up days later, everything had been different.

_What happened while I was asleep?_

She turned to Regulus, giving him an inquiring look.

"How long has it been since I was here?" she asked.

"Some years," he answered. "You were quite small at the time." There was a hint of approval in his gaze - she was on the right track, but he wasn't going to lead her.

"When I was in the hospital?" she persisted. "Did I have... another dream, like this?"

Regulus made a rumbling noise, and Ruka took one step backwards before she realized he was laughing.

"You _were_ here. Your spirit was here, anyway, in much the same way as your spirit partners are there for you in your own world. You stayed here for several weeks."

"I see," she said softly. "I really don't remember..."

"It will come to you," said Regulus, but for the first time, she heard a tremor of uncertainty in his deep voice. He didn't know for sure what she would remember, but she got the feeling that he was hoping very much that she would come up with something.

Ruka turned away and took a few more steps toward the rising sun, with Kuribon frolicking alongside her, chattering happily. The little creature's joy was infectious, and Ruka couldn't help but laugh along with it. The noise drew the attention of the locals, and Ruka turned to hear the rustling and chattering of several more creatures coming out of the woods. She was alarmed for only a moment before realizing that she knew these monsters. Some of them were in her deck, but some of them...

"I remember you!" she said to them.

The little monsters swarmed her, squealing and laughing in excitement.

"Ruka, Ruka, we missed you!"

"I'm really glad to see you again," she said, dropping to her knees to embrace them. Watapon, Jerry Beans Man, Petit Angel... seeing their faces brought back a rush of memories. When she had awakened in a strange world with no idea where she was or how she'd gotten there, these had been the ones who befriended her and took care of her. They had spent every day romping in the grass and playing in the stream, and their nights secure beneath the canopy of the forest. She really had wanted to stay there forever. It seemed better than living with parents who were gone more than they were home, and a brother who was too wrapped up in his own interests to pay much attention to her. In this place, she'd had everything she needed and lots of good friends to play with.

All of which raised the question: why had she ever left?

"Ruka, are you going to stay with us now?" asked a little fairy, looking up at her beseechingly.

"I don't think I can," Ruka admitted. "My brother would worry too much..."

The fairy nodded, disappointed. "He was looking for you last time, too."

"Really?" asked Ruka, surprised. "He was here?"

The fairy shook her head. "No, but you said you heard him calling for you, and not long after that, you were gone."

"I see," said Ruka softly. That would explain her departure - and perhaps the fact that before her collapse, she and Rua hadn't been particularly close, but afterwards, he had become very protective of her and followed her wherever she went. Perhaps he was worried she would disappear again if he didn't keep an eye on her. And she had, hadn't she?

_But I made a promise,_ she thought. She frowned, trying to pinpoint the one bit of memory that was still missing. She had promised someone she was going to stay here and do... something... but her brother's call had been too strong for her, and she had turned away from her promise, pushed it to the back of her mind until it had receded from her memory entirely. She turned to Regulus.

"Someone is missing," she said. "Who isn't here?"

The white lion looked grave.

"Get on my back," he said, crouching down in the grass. "There's something I want to show you."

Ruka did as she was told, scrambling onto his back and sinking her fingers into his thick mane. Once he was certain that she would not fall off, Regulus got to his feet and began bounding swiftly across the grass. He crossed the river with a mighty leap and carried her over the rolling hills beyond. Ruka watched eagerly as the scenery rolled past them. At first, it was not so very different from the meadow where she'd arrived: grassy hills, patches of flowers, scattered groves of slender trees, the occasional twinkling brook. Sometimes they would pass a roving Duel Monster, who would look at them with interest as they swept past. However, as they progressed, Ruka began to notice that something was changing. The flowers became smaller and paler until they faded out altogether. The grass lost its verdancy, becoming yellowed and weedy. The brooks became dry creek beds or stagnant puddles full of slimy green water. Soon the grass ended altogether, leaving nothing but dusty earth and occasional outcroppings of stone and prickly shrubs. Even the sky looked gray - not cloudy, but simply faded, like something that had been washed too many times. There were no more monsters here, but Regulus seemed nervous, constantly scanning the area. Sometimes he would catch sight of something that made him change direction, though Ruka saw nothing but earth and stone.

"What's wrong?" she asked him.

"This area has been drained," Regulus explained. "It will be easier to explain when we get there."

"Where is there?"

"Look ahead. Do you see those rocks on the horizon?"

Ruka squinted. Against the gray earth and gray sky, she thought she could make out a darker patch of grayness, a rough row of stone teeth.

"That's where we're going," said Regulus. "There is something there you need to see, so I have been told to bring you there."

"Told by who?"

"The one I serve," Regulus answered. "The one you're looking for. She's waiting there."

Ruka considered pressing for more information, but decided that if Regulus wasn't talking, it meant he didn't feel like telling her just yet, so she decided to wait until the reached the rocks. They were already much closer than they had been before, enough that Ruka could see them clearly. They jutted out above the edge of a flat gray lake like a great slab of pewter, still and sullen. Regulus carried her right up to the edge of the lake, where they could stand in the shadow of the stones, and knelt for her to climb down. She stepped gingerly onto the sand, feeling it creak oddly beneath her feet, like thin ice. The scent of the lake hung heavily in the air, reeking of pond weed and dead fish. It was cold in the shadow of the rocks, and Ruka shivered a little.

"What am I supposed to see?" she asked.

"Look up at the stones," Regulus told her.

Ruka looked. For a moment, she could see nothing but rugged gray stone, its features flat beneath the sunless sky. Then she gradually began to make out details. There was a shape there, like a fossil pressed into the rock, outlining the form of some serpentine beast. It had a slender, graceful body and a pair of lacy wings like a butterfly. Ruka stepped closer, staring up at the beast as if hypnotized.

"Ancient Fairy Dragon," she whispered. "She... this is the Ancient Fairy Dragon. What is she doing here? What happened to her?"

"She has been taken captive," said Regulus. "Her card has fallen into the hands of an evil man, and he has done evil things with it. Tell me, do you know what a Signer is?"

Ruka shook her head.

"There are two kinds. One group of Signers are agents of good - the chosen warriors of a holy beast called the Crimson Dragon. The others are Dark Signers, who serve the lords of the underworld, and exist only to cause death and ruin," Regulus explained. "The card that is linked to the Ancient Fairy Dragon's spirit has fallen into the hands of one of these Dark Signers. Do you know how it is that spirits can pass through the cards from this world to yours?"

Ruka shook her head.

"It is because of the connection between the card's spirit and the human who hears it. Only a human who truly loves their cards can hear the voices of the spirits. The man who has the Ancient Fairy Dragon's card was such a one," said Regulus sadly.

"How could that be?" asked Ruka. "If he loved his cards, why would he be one of the bad guys?"

"His heart has become twisted. The love he felt for his deck became greed, a desire to possess Duel Monsters as objects rather than to have them as his friends. To him, they are treasures to be hoarded, and his desire is very great. He believes he needs and deserves nothing less than the entire Duel Monsters world, and with the power the evil spirits have given him, he might be able to do it. You can see how far his reach has extended already."

"What can I do?" asked Ruka. "I'm not anyone special - I'm just a kid..."

"The Ancient Fairy Dragon believed that you are one of the Signers who are destined to fight the servants of the underworld," Regulus replied, "and I trust her judgment. That is why I brought you here. I hoped it would give you the motivation you need to stand and fight."

"But... I don't know how," she said. "I don't even know where to begin..."

"Don't be afraid," said Regulus. "You aren't alone. Your spirits will be with you, as will I. You can start by looking for the other Signers. They should be able to help you."

"How will I recognize them?" asked Ruka. She thought the sooner she found these people, the sooner she would be able to start helping the Ancient Fairy Dragon.

"I am uncertain," said Regulus. "The Signers are part of your world, not mine, and I have only heard of them in the last few years. I have heard, however, that you can recognize a Signer by a 'dragon's birthmark' on their arms."

Automatically, Ruka's hand went to her own arm. That time when she had dueled Aki, she had felt a pain there, and seen a glowing mark. Could that have been a 'dragon's birthmark'? But there had been one on Aki's arm, too. Was that why there had been such a powerful reaction when they dueled? Perhaps Signers were supposed to save their energy for fighting Dark Signers instead of dueling against each other. Ruka felt faintly hopeful at that idea; if it was true, then it meant that she wasn't really a danger to her brother, or anyone else who didn't have one of those birthmarks. Which meant that she didn't really need to deal with Divine...

That thought brought her back from her thoughts with a jolt.

"I need to go back," she said. "There's this man - he drugged me - I have no idea what he's doing to me now..."

Regulus's eyes flashed, and he growled low in his throat. "How dare he..."

"So I have to go back," said Ruka. "I don't even know how long I've been out..."

"To return is not difficult," Regulus replied. "You have only to close your eyes and start walking."

Ruka looked around. "Walk? Which way?"

"Any way you like. It is only your spirit that has traveled here. Direction and distance do not matter," said Regulus. "If it will make you feel better, you can hold on to me while you walk, and let me guide you."

Ruka nodded and took hold of Regulus's mane. She took a deep breath, as though preparing to jump into the lake, and closed her eyes. She took a step forward, and felt Regulus begin to move along with her, shortening his strides to keep pace with her. His paws made a steady thudding, like the sound of her heartbeat. She concentrated on the sound, and on the rhythm of her breathing. The world seemed to be becoming darker, as though even the thin light of the gray sky was fading away. Soon she realized that she could no longer feel the earth beneath her feet, though her hand still seemed to clutch Regulus's mane. She felt as though she were walking through water - no, as though she were drifting in a lazy river, being pulled slowly and inexorably towards some distant point. She focused on that feeling, letting herself be swept along, faster and faster. Then the world seemed to drop away beneath her, as though she'd fallen over the edge of a waterfall, and she was spinning, falling...

She was inside her own skin again. Ruka stirred a little and realized that she was lying on something flat and slightly yielding, like a hard mattress. Her hand was still clutching something, and it took her a moment to realize that it wasn't Regulus's mane at all, but only the hem of her jacket. There was a dim ache in her head. She winced and tried to open her eyes.

"So," said a voice above her, "you're awake."

* * *

It was uncomfortably quiet in Goodwin's office. He sat at his desk, fingers steepled in the time-honored manner of someone who is about to deliver an unwelcome lecture. In front of him were Mikage and Yusei, who were both looking less than pleased to be there. Mikage was staring at the floor, wringing her hands nervously and refusing to look her employer in the eye. Yusei simply looked as though there was somewhere else he would rather be. He didn't look as though the idea of meeting privately with the most powerful man in Neo Domino bothered him particularly. Goodwin found this irritating. With everything going on, the least he could do was have the grace to look worried, but no, Yusei was as cool and collected as ever.

"I must say, I am disappointed," said Goodwin softly. "I expected more from both of you."

His audience remained silent. Mikage, in particular, looked so distraught that Goodwin zeroed in on her just to relieve his own feelings.

"How long have you been working on the assignment I gave you?" he asked her.

Mikage murmured something inaudible.

"Too long," he told her. "You were supposed to capture Jack Atlus and Nagisa Carly before anyone knew they were here. What am I seeing now? I'm seeing them on the nightly news. I am hearing them discussed on the talk shows. They have _fan clubs_ now. Does this sound like no one knows they're here?"

"At least they're not doing any harm," Mikage murmured.

"People are talking," said Goodwin. "They are saying that it's a shame that such a talented, good-looking young man would be wasting away over on Satellite. There is a veritable cult of personality around this mysterious masked girl who keeps bringing them news. Does this sound as though you are doing your job correctly?"

"No?" she ventured.

"That is correct," said Goodwin. "So. I will give you one more chance. The girl is no longer of any interest to me, but it is imperative that Jack Atlus be located and brought here at once. I will give you twenty-four hours. If you have not delivered him to me within that time, I will look for someone more competent to take your place."

She gasped. "Sir, you don't mean..."

"You're wasting time, Mikage," he said.

Her face flushed, but she swallowed whatever she'd thought to say and bowed stiffly.

"Yes, sir," she said in a shaking voice, and turned and hurried from the room. Goodwin watched her impassively. In the long run, he thought, it made no difference whether she lost her job or kept it: the end result would be the same. Perhaps that motivation, though, would be enough to speed her along. There really wasn't much time left. He needed the Signers all in one place and working towards the proper goal, if only as a means of stalling for time.

Speaking of which...

"I suppose you're disappointed in me, too?" asked Yusei.

Goodwin frowned a little; it was difficult to tell from Yusei's tone if he were mocking him or not.

"That depends," he said judiciously, "on what you have to tell me."

"I've been in contact with Jack," said Yusei. "I couldn't persuade him to tell me where he is or convince him to help, but I think he could be reached again, if I had to."

"I see," said Goodwin slowly. "And how is it that you were able to get in touch with him, without knowing where he is or being able to retrieve him?"

"I got the message through a third party."

"A third party," Goodwin repeated.

"Yes."

Goodwin held Yusei's gaze, but the boy stared back at him steadily, and it was Goodwin who looked away first. Yusei was hiding something, no doubt about that - but what that "something" could be, he wasn't sure, and it was clear Yusei wasn't going to tell him. The thought made Goodwin briefly uneasy. The idea of anyone knowing something he didn't bothered him, especially someone who had the potential to change the whole situation if things fell out in his favor. He could almost hear the echo of Dr. Fudo's voice saying, "_My son is cleverer than you are._" If he was hiding anything important...

No. That couldn't be. It simply wasn't possible for the boy to have outwitted him in a matter of days when he had spent years laying out his plans.

"I have definitely located one of the others," said Yusei. "I can find her again at any time. That leaves only one more."

"I see. Well done," said Goodwin. "But still, not as good as I had hoped. I have received an ultimatum from our enemy. We are running out of time."

"That's why you threatened Mikage."

"If the Signers are not collected and mobilized within the next few days, threats will be redundant," said Goodwin smoothly. "Losing her job will hardly matter if the city is being razed."

"I see," said Yusei. "What if I bring you Jack, and not her? Will you still let her keep her job?"

"I don't see why it matters to you," said Goodwin.

"Mikage is my friend," Yusei answered simply.

"You don't want much, do you?" said Goodwin, raising an eyebrow.

"Neither do you."

Once again, Goodwin was certain that he was being mocked, but it was difficult to say exactly how. He decided to overlook it.

"I don't care who fetches him, as long as he is found," said Goodwin. "But I believe it would be best if you concentrated your energies on the as-yet-unknown Signer and left Jack to someone else."

"That isn't an answer."

Goodwin scowled. "Very well, then, have it your way. If the task is done, she won't be fired. It would be a bother to train a new assistant anyway."

Yusei still didn't look entirely pleased by this, but he murmured some approximation of agreement and wandered off. Goodwin hoped that between Yusei and Mikage, matters would be settled soon. Otherwise, he would have to leave before everything was properly settled, and he hated to walk off and leave a job half-done.

Mikage, meanwhile, had rushed off to look for Ushio, who had promised to hang around and hear how her meeting with the Director went. She was in such a panic by the time she found him that she nearly crashed into him, and it took a moment for the two of them to sort themselves out.

"Easy, easy! What happened?" Ushio asked her.

Mikage shook her head, trying to clear her mind.

"The Director... he's given us a time limit," she said. "If I don't bring him Jack Atlus within twenty-four hours, he's as good as said I'll lose my job."

"He... what? He can't do that!" Ushio protested.

"He's the Director. He can if he wants to," said Mikage. She hung her head. "Twenty-four hours... it's impossible. We don't even have any real leads anymore."

"Don't give up yet," said Ushio. "It only takes a few minutes to arrest a guy. There's still time. We'll figure something out, you'll see."

Mikage gave him a wan smile. "If it helps, he says he doesn't care about the girl anymore. He only wants Jack Atlus brought to him."

Ushio started to say something, then stopped. He stared thoughtfully off into space for a moment, and Mikage found herself holding her breath, hoping against hope that he'd come up with an idea.

"Huh," he said at last. "You know, that might just make things easier..."

* * *

Divine smiled down at Ruka. His expression was gentle, faintly amused, like a father listening to his child's reasons why she didn't need a bath. The smile would have been more reassuring if Ruka hadn't been completely strapped down. Cuffs had been fitted to her wrists and ankles, making it impossible to leave the table or even sit up properly. Wires were affixed to her skin here and there, and a metal helmet of sorts was strapped to her head, locking it in place.

"Did you have a good sleep?" asked Divine, as though nothing at all was wrong.

"You drugged me!" she accused.

"It was for your own good," he said sincerely. "Trust me, that was the gentlest way to sort you out. The drug is quite harmless, I assure you. I've used it plenty of times, myself - it's a wonderful cure for insomnia. You've been out for several hours, by the way. But then, no one will notice, will they?"

Ruka's memory flickered back to their earlier conversation, when he'd asked her so kindly about her family, her parents. He hadn't really been sympathetic, she realized - he'd been checking to make sure no one would come looking for her. She felt her face begin to burn, both with fury at him and frustration with herself for not realizing what he was up to.

"Why am I all clamped down? Let me go!" she demanded.

"In a minute," Divine promised. "I need to make sure that everything worked the way it was supposed to. Besides, I've yet to get an accurate measure of your full powers. I want to experiment a little bit."

_Experiment?_ Ruka didn't like the sound of that at all. She twisted in her bonds, but they held fast.

"Let me go!" she shrieked.

"Now, now - be still," said Divine patiently. "You'll only hurt yourself, doing that."

"But I don't want to be an experiment!"

"It will all be over quickly," Divine assured her. "Just relax. It will hurt less if you don't fight it."

"Hurt _less?_" Ruka squeaked. "No! Let me _go!_"

Divine acted as though he hadn't heard her. Instead, he wandered over to a machine that rested on a desk nearby, and began contemplating its intricacies. He talked quietly to himself as he turned a few dials, flipped a few switches. Then he turned back to Ruka.

"Try not to panic," he said. "I have found that physical stress is often a good way of bringing psychic powers to the forefront. It will go more quickly if you don't fight it."

Then he pushed a button, and Ruka screamed.

**To Be Continued...**


	20. Yusei Answers the Call

**Yusei Answers the Call**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Aki was restless. She had expected that by now, Divine would be done with whatever he was doing with Ruka, and she would have returned. Hours had passed, though, and there was still no sign of either of them. She wondered what was keeping them. Divine didn't usually spend so much time working one-on-one with anyone but her, and for a moment, she felt a stab of jealousy, which she quickly pushed away. Ruka might have talent, but she was nowhere near Aki's level. Divine wouldn't forget his favorite student because of this little girl. Still, what was keeping them? Soon it would be time for her to go out and make her nightly rounds, and she wouldn't want to leave without saying goodbye to Ruka. Perhaps she would visit the training room for a little while, to warm up before she attempted to duel any actual human beings. She closed the book she'd been looking at, rather than reading, for the past few minutes, and got up to leave.

Then her knees buckled under her, and she lurched forward, bracing herself against the table. At the same time, an electric thrill, like the ghost of a pain, shot through her, and her mind echoed with screams. For a fleeting instant, she held a picture in her mind of a clean white room, with a little girl strapped to a table while Divine stood next to her, placidly adjusting the knobs on a nearby machine. The mark on Aki's arm began to throb.

_Ruka..._

Aki blinked and rubbed at her eyes as the vision faded. The pain in her nerves faded, but the red birthmark continued to throb, glowing through the thin fabric of her gloves, pulsing like a terrified heartbeat.

_What's going on here?_

Aki knew the room she'd seen - it was used for scientific study. She'd even been studied there herself, a few times, though what she'd undergone had been little more arduous than a routine physical checkup would have been. She had been dimly aware that other members of the group were not treated so gently. Divine had taught her that any kind of stress could heighten psychic response - it triggered the fight-or-flight instinct, and forced the body to muster up all its resources. People who could not consciously use their full power would reach for it instinctively when they felt threatened, and once they had the feel of that power, they could use it again afterwards with less prodding. Duels were the most common method Divine used for that sort of training, sometimes with the shock collars that were popular in some of the more brutal underground dueling rings, but more often with only his own psychic ability, which was quite dangerous enough. But as far as Aki knew, it had always been _adults_ who were trained that way, consenting adults who knew what they were getting into and who were never subjected to more than they could bear. She had understood that it was the possibility of fighting back that was important, the chance to use one's power to defend oneself. To be strapped to a table and tortured...

_She's just a little girl. She'll get hurt. She'll die..._

Aki shook her head. What was she thinking? Divine knew what he was doing. He _always_ knew what he was doing. That was the gospel she lived her life by: do what Divine says, and everything will be fine. But she had grown fond of Ruka. She might have been just a little girl, but she was still someone to talk to, which wasn't something Aki had often had. She didn't like the feeling that she was responsible for Ruka being hurt. But what could she do? Go to Divine and tell him to stop?

_I can't. Not after what happened last time. I promised I wouldn't disobey..._

She closed her hand over her birthmark. The ache was diminishing, but the feeling did not soothe her. She knew, somehow, that the mark somehow linked her to Ruka, and that if the connection faded out entirely, it would mean that Ruka was dead. The fact that the connection was weakening did not bode well. Aki bit her lip, wishing there was something she could do, somewhere she could go for help...

In the next instant, she was rushing to her room, scrambling through her belongings until she unearthed a scrap of paper. She carried it to her telephone, and with shaking hands and frequent glances at the paper, she dialed in a number. After a few rings, someone answered.

"Hello?" she said. "This is Izayoi Aki... You gave me your number."

"I remember," said Yusei. "Can I help you?"

"I... I don't..." she stammered, unused to asking assistance from others. "I need help. Please."

"Where are you? The Arcadia Building? I'll be right there," Yusei replied.

"Please hurry. There isn't much time."

"I'm on my way," said Yusei, and hung up.

Aki replaced the handset with mixed emotions. He had agreed so quickly. She was a relative stranger - she hadn't even been very nice to him, the one time they'd met - and yet all she'd had to say to him was "please" and he'd agreed almost before the words were out of her mouth. Once he got here, everything would be all right. Everyone knew he had been here once before, so they wouldn't be surprised if he turned up nosing around again, and he could rescue Ruka without Aki getting involved, and everything would be all right.

Unless, of course, he had only agreed with her to placate her, and he had hung up so quickly because he wanted to be rid of her, and not because he was rushing to save her. That was more likely. No one would really want to help her just because she'd asked. Nobody was really that nice. But he'd tried to help her before, when those strange people had attacked...

He wanted something from her, that was it. He'd tried to get her to join him that time, and she had refused, so now he was coming to try again. Maybe he would even make it a condition, before he did anything to help her. Well, if that was the case, she might just agree to get him to do as she wanted. After all, she didn't feel any special need to keep promises to outsiders. A promise made under duress was no good anyway. With that settled in her mind, she hurried for the door so she could be there when he arrived, and hoped he would not be too late.

* * *

Rua, meanwhile, had been sneaking. The first thing he had done was to rush straight home and change his clothes, borrowing a set from Ruka and fussing with his hair in front of the mirror until he had managed to a creditable set of pigtails. He'd even borrowed her backpack, the one she liked to carry her art supplies in: not only would it be useful as part of his disguise, but it would give him something to carry the file Misty wanted in without everyone seeing it. That was, of course, assuming he could get it. He still hadn't quite worked out how he was going to manage that part. He shoved his Duel Disk and deck into the bag, and, on an impulse, shoved Ruka's Disk in there too. She rarely let her deck out of her sight, but she didn't duel often enough to want her Disk with her wherever she went. It seemed like the kind of thing that would be nice to have around, though. You never knew when you might need it. Satisfied that he had everything he was going to need, Rua caught a taxi and headed for the Arcadia building.

When Rua arrived, he was immensely relieved to find Misty waiting for him. She was standing in the shadows behind an ornamental plant, almost invisible with her dark hair and long black jacket. He smiled and rushed up to her.

"Good, you're here," she said. "I had begun to wonder if you had lost your nerve."

"Nuh-uh, no way!" Rua insisted. "I wouldn't give up on my sister!"

"I should have known," said Misty. "Go quickly, now. We don't want anyone wondering why you're out so late."

Rua nodded and darted inside the building. His footfalls sounded uncannily loud in the empty main entrance, and he was terrified that a crowd of people would come swooping down on him, wondering who he was and why he was making all that racket. Instead, all that happened was that the woman at the reception desk looked up from her magazine, said, "Oh, it's just you again," and went back to her reading. Rua decided it was safest not to say anything, so he settled for nodding politely in her general direction and hurrying for the elevator. He shifted nervously from foot to foot as he waited for the doors to open, then darted inside and jumped up to smack the button for the top floor. The elevator doors slid silently shut, and Rua slumped against the wall with relief.

_Can't relax yet,_ he told himself. _The next part is going to be harder._

After what seemed like forever, the elevator finally glided to a halt and chimed gently, and Ruka took a breath and stepped out into a hallway. It was dark and silent, as if everyone who worked there had gone home for the day, and Rua wondered uneasily if the doors were all locked. He would be ashamed if he had to go back downstairs and tell Misty that there was nothing he could do. Worse yet, what if someone was in there, working late, who would demand to know what this strange child was doing there? Rua dithered a moment before resolutely setting out, wishing that Misty had been able to tell him what room the file cabinets were in.

The first room he checked wasn't an office at all. It looked more like a library, with shelves full of books and cozy chairs for sitting and reading, and desks with good lamps on them for study. There was also a tiny sink with some cabinets and an electric kettle. Someone had been making tea there recently, but they were gone now. Rua shut the door and moved on. The next room he tried was locked. Another door led to a supply cabinet stuffed with reams of paper and spare staples. The next room, though, led to such a grand office that he had to stare at it a moment to fully understand what it was. His parents were well-to-do, even by Neo Domino's standards, but neither of them had anything like _this_. With the marble statues arrayed in neat rows along the wall, the handsome paintings and tapestries, the gleaming hardwood floor, it looked more like a museum than an office. Yet, the far end of the room held a handsome desk with a state-of-the-art computer and a fancy writing set that looked more like it was there for decoration than for actual use. Rua couldn't help himself - before he'd even realized what he was doing, he'd tiptoed forwards for a better look.

Sitting behind the desk was a leather office chair, the kind with wheels on the bottom. Rua's father had one that Rua was absolutely not allowed to play with, but he'd never been able to resist doing so anyway, as long as no one caught him at it. Now, forgetting the seriousness of the moment, he jumped into this one and spun it around and around, watching the lights of the dark city outside flash past his eyes. After a few spins, he began to get dizzy, and clutched at the edge of the desk while he waited for his head to stop whirling. As he grabbed, he felt something give under his fingers, and there was a soft _click_.

_Oh, no, I broke it!_ he thought. Then his vision steadied a little more, and he realized that what he'd felt was a button sinking into the underside of the desk. It was labeled "OPEN".

_What did that do?_ Rua wondered.

Nothing about the desk seemed to have changed, but a quick look around the room revealed that a panel in the wall had shifted, showing a thin line of darkness. Rua got up and pushed it the rest of the way open, and discovered a miniature room full of shelves and cabinets.

_The files!_ he exulted. In retrospect, it seemed to him that he had uncovered the secret switch on purpose, and he was very pleased with his own cleverness. He opened a drawer at random, and found neat rows of files in alphabetical order. He leafed through them, trying to work out if these were really the files Misty had sent him to find. Each file seemed to be associated with a different person. Several of them were labeled with the word "experiment" and then a number, while others were identified only by name. Rua realized that many of the unnumbered files identified high-ranking members of society: wealthy businessmen, important politicians, and the like. Rua found his sister's file, but it was mostly empty. He was annoyed to find that she was identified as an experiment, and for a moment, he fought the urge to tear the whole thing into little pieces. Nobody experimented on his sister! And yet, something else bothered him. Misty had made it clear that it was Izayoi Aki who was the danger, but surely this wasn't her office - she was just a teenaged girl, maybe not even old enough to drive yet. And nobody had said anything about experiments. It felt funny, and Rua wondered fleetingly if Misty had made a mistake.

Then he pushed the thought out of his head, shut the drawer, and began looking for the file he'd been sent for. He opened the drawer labeled G-L and rummaged through it, looking for Aki's file. He found it at last, and discovered that it had the "experiment" label, as well. Rua frowned, his uneasiness deepening. If she was being experimented on, who was doing the experimenting? And why? What kind of experiments? He wanted answers, but there was no one to ask, so he shoved the folder into his pack and hurried out of the room, pulling the door shut tightly behind him. Hopefully, by the time someone thought to go looking for the file he'd stolen, he would be long gone.

With that matter accomplished, Rua darted towards the door, doubled back, and carefully straightened the desk chair so that it didn't look like someone had been spinning around in it earlier. Allowing himself to feel the first flickers of pride in a job well done, Rua hurried out of the room.

He ran into someone.

* * *

Yusei had the sense to use the back door. He had a feeling that even with an invitation, no one was going to let him past the Arcadia Movement's front doors again, not if he had a signed permit from the Director, the Vice-Director, and a few assorted deities for good measure. The back way in was locked the first time he tried it, but almost as soon as he'd let go of the handle, it swung open, revealing Aki standing there with an expression of relief.

"I thought you would come in through the front, at first," she explained.

Yusei nodded his understanding. "I thought this would be safer, if there was a problem. What's wrong?"

Aki lowered her eyes, biting her lip nervously.

"You really came to help?" she asked in a small voice.

"You said you needed it," he answered. "What would I be if I didn't help someone who needed helping?"

"You'd be just like everyone else," said Aki.

"Then I'm not like everyone else," Yusei replied. "What can I do?"

Aki replied by giving a rambling explanation. She was so agitated that Yusei couldn't fully get all the details, but he got the sense of it: a little girl had been captured and maybe hurt, and for whatever reason, Aki was too frightened to intervene. That fit with what he knew of her. He had an impression that she'd been trained to take orders until she didn't know what else she could do with herself, and if she had an order not to interfere...

Yusei, though, had no compunctions about getting involved. In fact, he felt good. He'd been itching for a chance to really do something useful, and now he finally had the opportunity to do it. He listened attentively as Aki, calmer now, explained what to do.

"The laboratory is on the top floor," she said, "all the way at the end of the hall. Oh, but the door might be locked..."

"I can get in," said Yusei. It was a rare person on Satellite who hadn't picked a lock at least once in his life. Crow had always been particularly good at it, but Yusei was a close second.

Aki looked a bit doubtful at this exclamation, but all she said was, "Good luck. And hurry."

He hurried. He didn't dare take the main elevator, at least on the ground floor where there always seemed to be people watching. Instead, he found a stairwell and rushed upwards, bounding over steps two and three at a time. He was in good shape, but it would have taken someone much more resilient than he to run all the way up to the top of the Arcadia building without at least stopping to catch his breath. The endless stairs reminded him of the underground temple.

_No, it's not just the stairs. There's something..._

Yusei's hand strayed to his arm, touching the unfamiliar new mark. It was throbbing, dully but persistently. Something bad was going on. Yusei would have bet his life that it had something to do with one of the Signers. It couldn't have been Aki - he hadn't noticed the pulse when they had been talking - and he thought he would recognize the feel of it if Jack were in danger again. Which meant that this was an unknown. Yusei almost laughed.

_Goodwin was right - we are drawing each other together. I never would have believed it._

He wondered, briefly, if this was why prickly, antisocial Jack had befriended him, despite their differences in personality. The thought unsettled him; he didn't like the idea that someone might never have liked him if they hadn't been picked by some meddling god to do a job together. Then he pushed the idea out of his mind. Jack had liked Crow and Kiryu and the rest of their old friends, and _they_ hadn't all been Signers. No, they might have been teammates by divine decree, but they were friends no matter what. Not that they'd been very close lately...

Yusei decided that he'd climbed high enough for now, and he opened the door at the next landing he came to. As he'd hoped, it opened on a quiet hallway with no one to see him get on the elevator. Keeping a watch over his shoulder and praying that no one would be _in_ the elevator, he pressed the button and waited impatiently for the doors to open. Luck was with him, and the chamber was empty, so he climbed aboard with a small sigh of relief and pushed the button for the highest floor.

However, almost as soon as he stepped out of the elevator, someone crashed into him. Yusei stifled a cry and looked down to see what had collided with him. A small child, with slightly uneven pigtails and a pink jacket was staring up at him with a horrified expression. Yusei's first impression was that he'd picked up a little girl - perhaps even the one he'd been sent to find - but that impression corrected itself almost instantly.

"I wasn't - I didn't - this isn't what you think!" the child stammered in an unmistakably boyish voice.

"Calm down," Yusei told him. "I'm not one of them. I'm here to help. Now, who are you, and what are you doing here?"

"My name's Rua," the boy answered. "I'm here for my sister. I'm afraid something bad has happened."

"Would your sister's name be Ruka, by any chance?"

Rua brightened immediately. "Yeah! Do you know where she is? Have you seen her?"

"I haven't seen her, but I'm looking for her," said Yusei. "Miss Izayoi told me where to find her."

"You mean, Izayoi Aki?" asked Rua, frowning. "But she's the one who..." He trailed off, watching Yusei's expression. "You mean, she's not the one hurting my sister?"

Yusei frowned. "Why would you think that?"

"That's what Misty said," Rua replied.

"I don't know who this Misty is, but she's mistaken," said Yusei. "Miss Izayoi is very worried about Ruka. She called me in a panic, asking me for help. That's why I'm here."

"But that can't be right," said Rua. "If it's not her, who is it?"

"That's what I want to know," Yusei replied, "and I'm going to find out. If you're coming with me, then stay quiet and stay close."

Rua nodded and fell into place next to Yusei. Together, they made their way down the long hallway. At the far end, there was a door, tightly closed. Yusei placed his hand on it, and his mark began to glow faintly, like an ember touched by a breeze.

"Whoa," Rua whispered.

Yusei shushed him and leaned against the door, pressing his ear to the crack. The room must have been well soundproofed, but if he strained, he could hear the cries of a young girl - the whimpers of someone being pushed beyond the point of endurance.

"She's in there," said Yusei softly.

He tried the handle and found it locked - of course, but he had to try. The lock was a simple one, though, not the electronic kind. That would have taken a while even for him to undo, but for a tumbler lock, all he needed was a bit of wire and a few seconds of concentration. While Rua watched in fascination, Yusei slipped a bent piece of wire out of his pocket and eased it into the lock. A moment of tinkering, and everything clicked into place. Yusei flung the door open.

A little girl, obviously Ruka, lay on a table in the middle of the room, affixed to some sinister machine. Her face was streaked with tears. Oblivious to her pain, a well-dressed man was toying with a console of some sort, but he looked up and glared as Yusei burst into the room. A look of shock crossed his features, and then he smiled.

"Well, well, well," he said. "Another one. Isn't today my lucky day?"

"Let her go," Yusei demanded.

"Ruka!" Rua shouted, trying to push past Yusei. "Ruka, are you okay?"

The girl made a feeble movement, trying and failing to turn her head within the confines of the machine. "Rua... you came for me..."

"Yes, yes, how very touching," the man purred. "A nice little family reunion. Ruka and I were just having a little training session - completely voluntary, nothing to worry about."

"He tricked me!" said Ruka. "He drugged me and knocked me out!"

Rua's face went dark with outrage. "Let her go! Let her go right now, or I'll..."

Yusei put a hand on Rua and pushed him back, but inside, he felt the same way. If there was one thing he couldn't stand, it was people who hurt children, and this man had the nerve to stand there looking so calm and sure of himself... as if he'd done nothing wrong at all. It wasn't often Yusei felt a desire to actually hurt someone, but there was something about this well-dressed man with his slender white hands and his expensive cologne and smug smile that made Yusei want to smash his teeth in. He might do that anyway. No one should be allowed to hurt a little girl that way, and Yusei was sure he could fight this man; he didn't look to be anything as tough as Ushio had been.

"Let her go," he said, "or you'll be sorry."

"Oh, I don't think so," said the man smoothly. "That wouldn't be in my best interests. Really, letting two Signers just walk away without a scratch? That wouldn't do. The gods would never let me live it down."

Yusei felt dread like a block of ice settling in the pit of his stomach. The man smiled at him, his eyes as warm and gold-green as good tea... and then suddenly, they flickered black around the edges.

"Get back," said Yusei, trying to push Rua away.

"What? But..."

"This is too dangerous. Get out of here. Run!" Yusei snapped. "I'll get your sister to safety."

Brave words, but he had no idea how he was going to do this. All he knew for sure was that he couldn't stand by and let an innocent little boy get hurt. He gave Rua a final shove and heard the patter of feet behind him as the boy finally began to run away. The strange man clucked his tongue.

"It wasn't necessary to be so rough," he said.

"Look who's talking!"

"Oh, you mean this? This is different," the man said. "This is _research_. Really, you should thank me, Signer. I'm doing my best to draw out her powers for you." He gave a theatric little sigh. "I had hoped I would have more time to get my affairs in order. I could have gotten a good price for this one."

"Price?" Yusei repeated. If only he could keep the man talking long enough to figure out what to do. Fortunately, the man seemed to be the sort who liked the sound of his own voice, and enjoyed reveling in his own cleverness. Yusei wondered fleetingly if this might be the Divine that Aki was so convinced would protect her. For her sake, he hoped not, but he had a sneaking suspicion it was so. With his good looks and smooth manner, he seemed the sort who could easily charm an impressionable girl.

"Of course," the man continued. "Did you think I was running this operation on a lark? That I would sink millions of dollars into this movement just out of the goodness of my heart? No, I'm in it to make a profit, pure and simple."

"You must do a lot of business, to make a profit that would offset all this," said Yusei carefully. Facility with words was not his strongest suit. As unobtrusively as he could, he edged towards the machine. Divine, having been successfully distracted, had moved away from it, the better to make his dramatic gestures.

"Oh, indeed I do," he was saying. "I sell the most precious commodity of all: human beings."

"You sell _people?_" Yusei repeated. He couldn't believe it. He thought he'd run into every kind of criminal there was on Satellite island, but he'd yet to encounter anyone who could say that he sold human beings. Sold their bodies, perhaps - or at least rented them out on a nightly basis - but to sell a person like a bolt of cloth?

"Oh, yes. Of the very highest quality," said Divine, and laughed as if he'd told a rather clever joke.

"How can you sell a person?" asked Yusei. He took a step forward, trying to look as though he were merely outraged, and not just trying to get closer to the machine. He didn't have to try very hard to look outraged. "Who would even want to buy one?"

"Governments, mostly," said Divine with an offhand shrug. He shook his head, almost pityingly. "You poor boy, you've never even been outside this city, have you? Well, I'll teach you this much for free: it's a big world out there. Neo Domino City is a shining utopia of peace, justice, and prosperity, but other cities... not so much. Security claims to have jurisdiction everywhere, but the truth is that they have all they can do just to keep this city functioning. The outside world is harsh, my boy, harsher even than Satellite, in some ways. Poverty, famine, disease, war, political corruption - the world is rife with them. Everyone is looking for a way to gain the advantage over their neighbors. I provide."

"By selling them slaves?" asked Yusei. He inched a tiny bit closer to the machine.

"Not just any slaves," said Divine. "Soldiers. This building is my training facility. Under my tutelage, they learn how to obey orders unthinkingly, while boosting their psychic potential and dueling ability. They become the perfect fighters, powerful and perfectly obedient. Once they've learned all they can, I sell them off to the highest bidder."

"Even Aki?" asked Ruka.

"I considered it," said Divine calmly. "But she was always my best student, and she works so much better as a figurehead, for luring in new members. But when a tempting enough offer comes along..." He laughed, obviously enjoying a private joke.

Ruka gazed at him in horror. "But she _loves_ you!"

"She's supposed to," said Divine. "I worked very hard to make it so. How else would I get her to stay loyal to me? Love is the most valuable thing in the world. Once you have someone's love, they'll do whatever you want."

"You're insane," said Yusei. Then he thought, _No, he's not insane. His mind is in perfect working order. He's planned this whole operation down to the last detail. It's his soul that's twisted._

"Someone like you _would_ say so," said Divine with an airy wave of his hand. "But it's my way that makes sense. I've already accomplished more than you ever will."

"You can't keep it up forever," said Yusei. "Security will find out what you're doing."

Divine laughed. "Oh, they already know. But they won't do anything about it. I have the goods on the Director. He'll never raise a finger against me as long as he knows I could ruin his reputation. Maybe I should tell you. You're working for him, aren't you? I wonder how much you'd trust him if you knew what sort of person he really is."

"I already know what sort of person he really is," said Yusei. "I'm not doing anything for his sake. Right now, all I want is to put a stop to what you're doing. Let the girl go."

"I would really rather not," said Divine. "She's really a bit young to become a soldier, but she might make for a good bodyguard. Who would suspect a little child to be capable of deadly force? But it's too late for that now. Such a pity."

"Then why keep her?" asked Yusei. "If she's no use to you..."

"Not to me _personally_," said Divine. "But an associate of mine has laid a claim on her. I didn't follow his reasons - something about a card she has that he wants, some sort of dragon. Simple pleasures for simple minds, I suppose. He wanted to finish her off himself, but I don't see why I can't study her a bit in the meantime. I'm sure he won't mind if I soften her up a bit for him." His eyes glittered. "You, though... nobody has claimed you yet. You're fair game."

He gave Yusei a malevolent smile, one that should have chilled his blood with its malignancy. Yusei had been expecting something like it, though, so while Divine reveled in his performance, Yusei punched him in the face.

Divine staggered backwards and fell against the wall, and slumped into a heap with blood trickling from his lip. Yusei gave him a look of contempt before hurrying over to start unfastening Ruka's bonds.

"Don't worry," he said. "I'm taking you somewhere safe."

He helped her down from the table. She was a little shaky on her feet, but quickly got herself steadied. She regarded him with wide, serious eyes.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"My name is Fudo Yusei. I'm a friend of Miss Izayoi," he said, wondering just how much he was bending the truth by saying that. "She asked me to come help you."

Ruka regarded him solemnly. "Are you a Signer?"

Yusei was momentarily nonplused. How did she know that?

"Yes," he said. "Now, come on. Let's go find your brother."

"Not yet."

Yusei turned to look. Divine was getting to his feet, smiling at them with a strange glitter in his eyes. There was a trickle of blood coming from a split in his lower lip, but even as Yusei watched, the blood crept backwards up his chin to return to where it belonged, and the cut sealed itself up.

"Did you think you could hurt me?" Divine asked. "Didn't anyone tell you? A Dark Signer is _immortal_." His smile widened. "Pity the same doesn't hold true for servants of the red dragon."

Dread washed over Yusei. No one had told him that his enemies couldn't be hurt or killed. Did that mean they couldn't be stopped at all? Doubt wrapped his mind like a constricting snake, hissing _hopeless, hopeless..._

No. He would not have been marked by Fate to take on this task if there was nothing he could do. He forced himself to meet Divine's gaze.

"That may be true," he said, "but that doesn't mean you can stop me from walking out this door and going home."

Divine gave a snarl, and his eyes flickered again, going strangely dark. His hand strayed towards his pocket, as if reaching for something. A gun? Yusei quickly moved to put himself between Divine and Ruka.

"Even without the god's help, I'd be more than a match for you," said Divine. "Just watch."

He flicked out a card and brandished it, and a fireball burst forth. Yusei was so accustomed to seeing cards produced holograms that it almost sank in too late that this fireball was _real_. He dove to the side, dragging Ruka with him, and heard the fireball crash into the wall. There was a smell of smoke and a crackle as the wallpaper caught fire and began to burn.

_So that's what a psychic duelist does._

"Hold still," said Divine.

Yusei didn't oblige him. He rolled to his hands and knees, then bounded to his feet and moved to scoop Ruka into his arms. His only thought now was to get to the door and get out. He wasn't afraid of a fair fight, but no sane person would hang around in a situation like this.

"Regulus, help!" Ruka shouted.

Yusei had just enough time to wonder what that was all about before a lion the size of a small car burst out of seemingly nowhere and flung itself at Divine, tearing at him with teeth and claws. Yusei turned away; it was possible that Dark Signers couldn't be killed, but it appeared that immortality wasn't the same thing as invulnerability. Trying not to listen too closely, he dashed out the door.

"I don't know how long I can make him stay real," said Ruka weakly.

"Long enough for us to get away," said Yusei, with more confidence than he felt. Then, because it had to be asked: "How did you _do_ that?"

As wan as she looked, Ruka still managed to dredge up a smug smile.

"Divine said that medicine he gave me would boost my powers," she said, "and I guess it did!"

Yusei laughed. "He might be more careful next time, then."

They made it to the safety of the elevator and rode it down to the ground floor. As soon as they opened the door, they found Rua waiting for them, practically dancing with nervousness and impatience.

"Ruka! You're all right!" he exclaimed. He tried to hug his sister - no easy matter, considering that Yusei was still carrying her.

"Of course I'm all right," she said, sounding a bit more revived.

"Have you seen Aki?" Yusei asked. "I need to find her. We've all got to get out of here."

Rua's expression darkened. "I thought she was the one who was going to hurt Rua. Misty told me that's who it was."

Ruka shook her head. "Aki would never hurt me. She's my friend. It was that man, Divine - he's the one hurting people. Aki, too."

"But then... was it him who hurt Misty's brother?" Rua asked.

"Probably," said Yusei. "He seems like the type."

Rua's eyes widened. "Then we've got to stop them before someone gets hurt!"

"Stop who?" Yusei asked.

"Misty and Aki! They're going to fight!"

* * *

Aki paced the floor. How much time had passed since she'd sent Yusei hurrying upstairs to rescue Ruka? Ten minutes? Fifteen? More? It felt like an eternity to Aki, and she found herself wondering if she had made a mistake. If anyone had seen him and recognized him as an outsider, they would not grant him any mercy. She was not entirely clear what would happen to him, but she knew there had been intruders in the building before, and they had disappeared without a trace. She had never cared what happened to them - after all, they were outsiders, enemies, people who would surely treat her just as badly if they could get away with it - but she found that she couldn't manage the same level of abstraction with Yusei. He had come to her aid when she had asked him, and asked for nothing in exchange. He had not been afraid of her. He understood what it was like to be hated and feared for reasons he had nothing to do with and couldn't control. She had the lurking suspicion that given the chance, he might have become her friend. Now he was trying to help her, without fully understanding the danger he had put himself in for her sake. Perhaps she should have tried harder to warn him. Maybe she shouldn't have called him at all...

_This was my responsibility. I was the one who invited Ruka here in the first place. She would be safe if it weren't for me - I should have known she was too young and weak to withstand the training. And now Yusei is in danger, too, and it's all because of me. Why do I only end up hurting people?_

"Come now, Izayoi Aki. You know the answer to that."

Aki's head jerked up, and she looked around in confusion, wondering if she had unwittingly spoken aloud. Standing at the far end of the hall was the same cold-eyed woman who had dueled her the day she'd met Yusei. She was smiling now, advancing slowly, with the air of someone who knows she has all the time in the world. She carried a manilla envelope in one hand, holding it up as though it were a prize she wanted everyone to see.

"Surprised?" she asked. "Your thoughts are written plainly on your face. I can see exactly what you're thinking."

"What do you want from me?" Aki demanded.

The woman's face hardened. "Something you can't give."

"Then why do you keep following me?"

"Because someone needs to put a stop to you before you put anyone else in danger. You hurt everyone you come in contact with, even in this place you think is safe. If I cannot undo the damage you have done, I will stop you from doing anything else." She took a few steps closer, and Aki had to fight the impulse to back away. The woman smiled at her. "Don't look so frightened. I've brought you a present. Here. Take it."

Aki found that the manilla folder was being pressed into her hands. She held it carefully, as though she thought it might explode. It had her name written across the top.

"Where did this come from?" she asked.

"Upstairs. A friend of mine borrowed it from your mentor's files. I thought you might find it informative. It says a few things about you... and about your friend Divine as well."

Aki scowled. "There are no secrets between Divine and me."

"Then you shouldn't be afraid to look."

There was nothing to be said to that. Aki was tempted just to throw the folder back at this strange woman and walk away, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. That would be admitting there was a chance that she was wrong, that maybe Divine _was_ hiding something from her. She carefully shifted the folder in her hands - it was heavy, filled an inch thick with papers of various sorts, and she was afraid she might drop them and get them completely out of order. There were photographs, computer printouts, medical charts, even newspaper clippings. Several of the papers were handwritten, or adorned with multicolored sticky notes, all of them written in a hand she knew almost as well as her own. She picked one up at random. It was a note detailing Divine's reactions to what he described as an "experiment", carefully writing out the advantages and disadvantages of the method he'd used, dispassionately recording the results. Aki remembered the incident. Divine had told her it was an equipment malfunction. It had left her bedridden for days, immobilized with a blinding headache that sent bursts of nausea through her if she dared to even sit up straight. Divine had been next to her through most of it, holding her hand and bringing her tea, reading to her quietly when she felt well enough to pay attention, even feeding her by hand. She hadn't paid much attention to what else was going on at the time, but now that she thought back, she had a dim memory of Divine writing something in a notebook while he watched over her...

_He couldn't have. He never would have hurt me on purpose. He's not like that!_

She flipped through the rest of the folder with shaking hands. Finally, she flipped to the front of the folder and stared at the page on top, a sheet identifying her as "Izayoi Aki, Experiment #125." She stared at it, unable to comprehend what she was seeing.

"This... this is wrong," she said.

"It is not wrong," said the dark woman calmly. "You can see the proof for yourself, written in your mentor's own hand. This is the truth he has been keeping from you. He has never loved you. You are merely a number, a tool - perhaps his most effective tool, but a tool nonetheless."

Aki backed away, shaking her head. Her mind seemed to be full of white noise. She could hear words being spoken to her, but the sounds made no sense.

"It can't be... It can't be..." Aki repeated.

"You know that it's true, deep down. You've known it all along, haven't you? You are a monster. No one will ever care for you, not even those you care about most. This is the most you can ever expect: to be useful to someone, rather than a burden. But you couldn't even do that right, could you? You let your powers get out of hand and hurt him. He was entirely right to try to deceive you. Just imagine how you would have treated him if he hadn't tried to placate you."

"Why are you doing this?" asked Aki, voice shaking. "I've never done anything to you!"

The woman stiffened. The room seemed to grow suddenly colder.

"Never say that again," she said. "You have no idea what you've done to me..."

Before she could say more, there was a distant echo of footsteps, and both women turned to see Yusei racing towards them with the twins in tow. He stopped short as he saw who Aki's companion was.

"I think you've bothered Miss Izayoi enough for today," he said quietly.

"Misty," added Rua, "I think we might need to talk about this..."

Misty looked at him with an expression that spoke of deep betrayal.

"I thought we were on the same side," she said softly.

"We are," he said. "I mean... I _am_ on your side, but... I think I'm on this guy's side, too."

"You can't have it both ways," said Misty.

There was a tense moment as the two of them held each other's gaze. Then Yusei stepped calmly between them.

"That's enough," he said. "Go. You aren't wanted here."

Misty looked around, frowning slightly. Then she apparently decided that she had no interest in trying to take on three Signers at once.

"Very well. I will depart, for now," she said, "but you will see me again, Izayoi Aki. When there is no one left to protect you, I will be there. Count on it."

With that, she retreated, vanishing around a corner. No one tried to stop her. Aki, feeling suddenly numb, dropped to her knees, letting the folder she'd been holding slip through her fingers. The others gathered around her, Yusei and Ruka looking concerned and Rua standing guiltily off to the side.

"Aki, are you okay?" asked Ruka, eyes wide.

Aki shook her head. "I should ask you that. I'm so sorry..."

"It's not your fault. You didn't know," Ruka assured her. "What was that woman doing? Did she hurt you?"

"No, but..."

Yusei knelt and picked up the folder, leafing through it quickly. Rua stood on his toes to look at it.

"What's in that, anyway?" he asked.

"Records," said Yusei. "Experiments that Divine person was performing on Miss Izayaoi..."

Aki made a choking sound, biting back a sob. Yusei immediately stopped talking and gently placed his hand on her shoulder. Aki tensed a little. She couldn't remember the last time someone other than Divine had actually touched her that way.

"It's all right," he said. "You can trust us."

Aki shook her head. It was all too much at once.

"How do I know?" she demanded. Anger was the easiest emotion, and she clung gratefully to it. "How do I know you aren't going to use me for something else? How do I know you're not just as bad as..."

She stopped, unable to bring herself to say it. Even now, she still couldn't fight the feeling that Divine couldn't possibly have done any of this. Her feelings for him were ingrained too deeply to change even in the face of incontrovertible evidence.

"Aki," said Yusei softly.

She looked up, surprised to hear him using her given name.

"I need your help," he said. "I won't pretend that isn't what I came for. I also won't try to force you or trick you into helping me - it's up to you. But I would like to believe that given enough time, we could be friends."

"Why would you want to be friends with me?" she asked, lowering her gaze. "All I ever do is make trouble for everyone."

"That's not true," said Ruka softly. "You helped me."

"I didn't! I... I nearly got you killed..."

"That wasn't you," said Ruka. "You were only trying to help me. _He_ was the one who hurt me. And I did learn something important. Everything came out all right."

Aki sniffled a little. She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. "If... if there's really something you think I can do..."

"Not only is there something you can do," Yusei replied, "but you might be the only one who can."

"Then I'll come with you," she said. "I can't stay here anymore..."

"I'll take you somewhere safe," Yusei promised. He turned to Rua and Ruka. "Are you two coming with us?"

Rua scuffed his sneaker on the floor. "Do you really want me to come? I kinda made a mess of things..."

"I need you to come with me," said Ruka. "I feel like I have a lot to do, and I'm pretty sure I can't do it all by myself."

"Well, if you're sure..." said Rua.

"We all should leave," said Yusei decisively.

He turned to walk away, beckoning for the others to follow. Aki got carefully to her feet, while the twins pressed close on either side of her, as though afraid she might topple over. She _felt_ like she might fall over, but she forced herself to stay in control. If she focused all her attention on putting one foot in front of another, she could avoid thinking about all the other things that were happening.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

Yusei paused to look back at her.

"I'm taking you to meet the Director," he said.

**To Be Continued...**


	21. They Assemble

**They Assemble**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Jack was unusually pensive that evening. Usually, just before he went out to duel, he would go over his cards, planning his strategies. Saiga might even have expected him to be outside going over his new D-Wheel, perhaps thinking of challenging some roving riding duelists. Instead, he was simply sitting at the kitchen table, staring off into space while his coffee cooled untasted. That was strange, too: since coming to the city, Jack had developed a passion for the stuff, and it was unlike him to simply ignore it when it was offered. His hand frequently strayed to rub at the odd mark on his arm.

"Worried about something?" Saiga asked him.

Jack glared at him briefly before looking thoughtfully down at the red mark. "Something doesn't feel right tonight. I don't think I should go out."

"You're not getting cold feet, are you?" Saiga persisted. "Relax. If Security hasn't caught up with you by now... heck, they've probably given up."

"Are you calling me a coward?" Jack snapped. "It's not them I'm worried about. It's... something else."

"So what is it? Some kind of creepy premonition? I thought it was your girlfriend who was the psychic," said Saiga. "Maybe we should get her out here and make her read her cards for you. Would you settle down if she predicted everything was going to be okay?"

"She's not my girlfriend," said Jack automatically.

On cue, there was a shuffling sound, and the kitchen door swung open. Yuji and Carly, their arms full of grocery bags, came clattering into the room.

"So this is where you guys were hiding!" said Carly. "You left me to carry all this stuff! Carrying heavy stuff is the guys' job, isn't it?"

"We didn't know Yuji was home," said Saiga plausibly. "Hey, Carly, put that down and come here a minute. Jack here wants his fortune told."

"Really?" asked Carly.

"No," said Jack.

Carly came over anyway, already fishing her deck out of her pocket. She sat down at the table and began shuffling her cards. She drew a few and studied them.

"What's the verdict?" asked Saiga. "Are we all doomed?"

"Um," said Carly vaguely. She frowned down at her cards as if they didn't quite make sense, as if she thought she was seeing an optical illusion and couldn't figure out the trick.

"It's... turning," she said at last. "It... they're going to..." She fluttered her hands in a helpless gesture. "I lost it."

"If you ask me, you never had it," said Saiga, leaning back in his chair. "I don't believe all that fortune-telling stuff."

Yuji wandered over to look at Carly's cards. "What did you mean, 'it's turning'?"

"It's like the Wheel of Fortune," said Carly. "Not the one Jack rides, I mean - the real one. Only I guess it's not really _real_. Um." She seemed to realize she wasn't getting anywhere and started over. "It's a Tarot card, right? The Wheel of Fortune. It means things are going to change - what goes up must come down, like that. But whatever I picked up was really, really big and I couldn't see all of it at once, and I got all confused."

"That's new," said Saiga.

Carly ignored him. She stared down at her cards, her expression uncertain.

"It must have been something _really_ big," she said softly, "because I've never felt like that when I used my cards before."

"But the Wheel of Fortune isn't a _bad_ sign, is it?" asked Yuji.

"No, not really..." Carly replied.

"Well, there you go," said Saiga. "Carly says there are no omens of doom and disaster in your future, and if you can't trust her, you can't trust anyone. You're good to go."

"Fine," said Jack irritably. "If you won't shut up about it, I'll go out just to make you be quiet! Come on, Carly. Get your camera and get ready to go."

"Right," she said, bouncing to her feet. "Saiga, help Yuji put the groceries away! There are still more on the bike."

"Fine, fine, no problem," Saiga assured her.

Jack stalked towards the door, throwing Saiga a sour look over his shoulder.

"Don't blame me if something goes wrong," he said loftily.

Once outside, though, he felt much better. The night air was cool and sweet, clearing the feelings of gloom from his system. Jack liked the night; things always seemed simpler to him after dark. Daytime was bright and hot and crowded, full of respectable people getting everyday jobs done. Night was for people like him.

He and Carly made their way to the site of the night's dueling. One of the advantages of Carly and Saiga's efforts at websurfing was that they'd been able to get a good feel for where the best dueling sites were. Jack had tried this one on his last visit and had enjoyed himself immensely, so he had decided to come back for a second round. There had been a few other sites he'd tried, but none had so consistently provided him with opponents of such high quality.

_I might as well enjoy it,_ he thought. It wouldn't do to visit the same place too many times in a row, not with Security watching for him. That had always been the weakest point in his plan - that generating the necessary publicity would also involve showing everyone where he'd been. Just one or two more visits, maybe, and he'd have to move somewhere else for a while.

The other reason why he liked this particular spot was that it offered the best hiding places. There was an old building on the corner that had once been a dress shop, but had gone out of business months ago. Now it was empty, awaiting a new owner, but in the meantime it was easy enough to jimmy the back door open sneak inside. A window offered Carly an excellent vantage point to take her film without being easily visible herself. While she fiddled with her camera, getting the settings the way she wanted them, Jack stood by the window and waited for someone else to arrive.

"Do you really think something bad is going to happen tonight?" asked Carly.

"I don't know," he said. "I've been thinking - do you remember that night when that Security officer attacked us?"

"How could I forget?" Carly retorted. "He nearly killed us!"

"Yes. And he said there would be more where he came from," Jack replied. "Just before I drew that last card, I had... some sort of vision. Maybe it was only my imagination." He shrugged, uncomfortable with the admission. "I thought I saw Yusei telling me that he needed me to help him fight some sort of danger."

"And you think it might be starting now?"

Jack raised his eyebrow. "You believe me?"

"You've never lied to me before," she said. "Besides, I'm the one who was rambling about visions of wheels. Talking to your friend makes a whole lot more sense."

"There is that," Jack agreed. "And another thing - this blasted mark keeps twinging. It's got to mean something. I don't like it." He pounded a fist against the wall. "If I knew what was coming I could fight it!"

"We both can't be wrong. Something's coming," Carly agreed. She placed a hand on his shoulder. "And I know you'll be ready for it when it gets here. You're the best at what you do, right?"

Jack seemed to revive a little. "Right."

"I thought so. So, what are you going to do until it gets here?"

Jack straightened up and fastened on his Duel Disk.

"I," he said, "am going to hope those people out there will be a good enough warm-up."

"That's the spirit!" Carly cheered. She couldn't easily kiss him with her mask on, but she hugged him, and he bore the treatment stolidly. "Go break a leg!"

Jack hurried back outside, but he slowed when he came within sighting distance of the other duelists. He had an image to maintain, after all. He sauntered up to them as if he had all the time in the world, well aware that all eyes were on him. They were nudging each other and whispering, and he caught a few words: _That's him! That's Jack Atlus!_ He couldn't help but smile. Someday, everyone would be saying that whenever they saw him, but for now...

"So," he said, "which of you wants to be my first opponent tonight?"

A young man stepped forwards. He wasn't one Jack had seen before, and he was eyeing Jack with an expression of intense interest.

"Are you... are you really Jack Atlus?" he asked.

"Of course I am," Jack replied. "Show me anyone else claiming to be me and I'll put him in his place."

The young man looked impressed. Then his expression darkened. "They say you can duel, but I don't believe it. There are no true duelists on Satellite."

"Whoever told you that was an idiot," said Jack. "There are no better duelists anywhere. You lot are soft, living in luxury over here. The people of Satellite learn to be strong. There are children over there I'd bet on against you lot. The duelists of Satellite are superior, and I'll prove it to anyone who says otherwise."

"So... you're really Jack Atlus, who escaped from the island?" the young man persisted.

Jack smirked. "You're a bit slow, aren't you?"

"No," said the man. "I'm Officer Morita of the Bureau of Public Security, and you are being detained."

"What? No!" Jack exclaimed, but even as he spoke, a number of other men separated themselves from the crowd and began surrounding him, pistols trained on him. Jack used a few words that would have made Martha wash his mouth out with soap, if she could hear him, but he raised his hands in surrender. The other duelists protested - they had come for a duel and didn't want their target to be hauled away, and it took some time for the other officers to make them settle down. Amid all this hubbub, Jack heard Morita speak a few words into his cell phone.

"Mission successful," he was saying. "We've got him."

One of the officers patted him down, checking for weapons, and someone else snapped a pair of cuffs around his wrists. While all this was going on, Jack became aware of the sound of someone rushing towards him, and looked up at the last thing he wanted to see.

"No, get out of here!" he shouted, but it was no good. Carly was rushing towards him; in her distress, she had neglected even her camera.

"Jack!" she called. "You big bullies, let him go! He isn't doing anything wrong!"

She flung herself in Jack's general direction, trying unsuccessfully to pry the policemen off of him. She was still at it when a squad car rolled up, and a familiar policeman stepped out. Jack felt his stomach drop as he recognized the officer he had dueled before. This time, at least, he didn't seem to be channeling anything.

"Good work, boys," he was saying. "I knew you'd pull it off." He sauntered closer to where Jack stood, looking immensely pleased with himself. "Well, well, if it ain't Jack Atlus! I've been hunting for you for a long time, you know that?"

"Choke on a doughnut," Jack snapped.

"Yeah, yeah, nice to meet you, too," said Ushio, unruffled. "Come on, buddy. Get in the car."

"What about me?" Carly demanded.

Ushio looked at her. "Well? What about you?"

"I escaped too!" she said. "Aren't you going to arrest me?"

"Carly!" said Jack. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm coming with you"!" she replied. "We're a team. Whatever happens to one of us, happens to both of us. You're not going anywhere without me."

"You're not going back to prison! I won't let you. Get _out_ of here!"

Ushio rolled his eyes. "Shaddup, both of you. I suppose you're Nagisa Carly? Well, the fact is, the Director doesn't care about you anymore. He only wants Jack Atlus, so I'm bringing him Jack Atlus. You aren't wanted for anything, so I can't arrest you even if I wanted to."

"What... what's going to happen to him?" Carly asked.

"How the hell should I know?" asked Ushio. "Do I look like the Director to you? I just do the grunt work around here. Now come on." He jerked on Jack's cuffs, dragging him towards the car.

"Wait," said Jack. "Just... let me say goodbye to her, all right?"

Ushio gave him a long, considering look. Then he seemed to soften. "Fine, but make it quick. I'm on a schedule, here."

Jack turned to Carly. His handcuffs didn't leave him much range of motion, but he fumbled at the chain of his necklace until he could reach the clasp and undo it. He carefully slid the rings off into the palm of his hand.

"Here," he said to Carly. "I don't want to lose these, so take care of them for me."

He pressed something into her hand and closed her fingers around it. Then he turned and walked away as quickly as he could, following Ushio. He got into the back of the car and curled up into a gloomy hunch. Ushio got into the front and began to drive.

"It doesn't matter what you do," said Jack. "I'm still right."

"You know what?" said Ushio. "I agree with you. Somebody needs to fix Satellite. What's happening there, it's all wrong."

Jack was so surprised by this admission that he spent the rest of the ride in astonished silence.

Meanwhile, Carly remained rooted to the spot, gazing off in the direction that Jack had gone and feeling as though her world was crumbling around her. After everything they had done together, she couldn't believe that it had ended like this...

She opened her hand to look at what Jack had given her, and paused. She had seen him take off both rings, but there was only one ring in her hand now. A burst of panic struck her: had she dropped the other one? But no, her hand had been tightly closed the whole time, and she would have heard if a metallic object like that had struck the pavement. He must still have the other ring. He wasn't just worried about losing them, then.

_A ring is a promise. He'll be back._

"Oh, Jack," she whispered.

She felt tears sting at her eyes, and she pushed her mask aside to rub at them impatiently. Then she turned and hurried home to deliver the news.

* * *

Jack had been vaguely prepared to be hauled off to a cell somewhere - if not an actual jail cell, then at least some sort of holding room in the Security main headquarters. He had not been expecting to be escorted directly to the Director's home. He had more or less gotten used to living in Yuji's house, and had been feeling rather pleased with how well he was adapting to Neo Domino's standards of luxury, but this was enough to boggle his imagination. Ushio had to prod him to make him stop staring up at the mansion and actually go inside. He grumbled as Ushio marched him up the front steps and through the grand double doors that led to the foyer. It irritated him that he was letting anything overawe him.

Jack followed his captor down a bewildering maze of hallways, finally stopping outside a plain door somewhere deep within the house. Ushio paused a moment to straighten his uniform and smooth down his hair.

"Be polite," he warned Jack. "This is a classy lady. I don't want you making a bad impression."

"Why do I care?" Jack retorted.

"Because I told you to do it, that's why!" said Ushio.

With a final warning glare, he squared his shoulders, straightened his spine, and rapped smartly on the door. There was a soft exclamation from inside, and a moment later, the door was opened by a modest-looking young woman. Jack glanced from her to Ushio, who was gazing at her with a rapt expression, and wondered just what the fuss was all about.

"Hi, Mikage," said Ushio. "Look what I've got!"

"What am I, a hunting trophy?" Jack muttered, but nobody paid any attention to him.

"You found him!" Mikage exclaimed. "I don't believe it! I could just kiss you."

Suiting action to words, she caught Ushio by the collar to tug him down and peck him lightly on the cheek. Ushio turned brilliant red, beaming as if all his dreams had come true. Mikage didn't seem to notice. Her attention was already focused on Jack.

"I hope they weren't too rough in bringing you here," she said.

"No," said Jack. "I didn't mind being jumped by policemen and hauled away in handcuffs. Just what I always wanted."

Mikage looked slightly ashamed. "It was a necessary precaution. Ushio, could you...?"

"Huh? ...Oh, sure, no problem!" said Ushio. He scrabbled at his pockets, finally fumbling out a key and undoing the cuffs. His hands were shaking, and it took him a few tries to finally get everything lined up correctly. Jack rolled his eyes.

"Could someone explain to me what I'm doing here?" he asked. "Or do all criminals get treated to dinner with the Director before they're thrown in jail?"

"Well... you're a special case," said Mikage. "The Director has taken a particular interest in you. You do have the card, don't you?"

"_What_ card?"

"The Red Demon's Dragon," she explained. "You _do_ have it? You haven't left it behind?"

"Why would I leave my best card behind when I'm dueling?" Jack snapped. "Of _course_ I have it."

Mikage sighed. "Oh, good, then everything is in order."

"No, it is not!" said Jack. "I want to know what's going on. I want to know _now_."

"Hey, I told you to be polite," Ushio warned.

"I am not going to be polite! If you're going to snatch me off the street, I have the right to know _why_."

"I think I'll let the Director explain that one," said Mikage.

Jack glared at her. "Why does the Director even care? Don't put me off - I want to know what the hell is..."

Before he could finish his demand, he heard the sound of several other people approaching - an irregular patter of many footfalls on the carpeted floor, blended with exclamations in childish voices. It was the voices that stopped him; Jack had the feeling that this was not a place where children were normally welcome. Without bothering to consult his police escort, Jack opened the door to see what all the fuss was about. He stared.

"Yusei?"

"Jack!" said Yusei, his face lighting up. "So they did find you."

Jack's reaction was to lunge at him and shove him against the wall.

"_You were here the whole time and you didn't tell me?_" he shouted.

"I tried," said Yusei. "You've been difficult to find."

"Yusei, who's this crazy guy?" asked the little girl.

"Don't call me crazy," Jack snapped.

Yusei ignored him. Despite the fact that Jack was still gripping his shoulders, he managed to turn and smile at the girl.

"Don't worry. This is an old friend of mine," he said. "Sometimes he gets excitable."

"Hey, wait, I've seen you before!" said the boy. "You're that duelist from Satellite! I've seen you on the news! You're _awesome_!"

"Humph," said Jack. He let go of Yusei and straightened himself up. "At least someone around here has some sense."

Yusei smiled, shaking his head. "You haven't changed a bit, Jack. It's good to see you."

"Right. Whatever," said Jack. "I'd be happier to see you if you could tell me what I'm doing here."

"That's a long story," said Yusei, looking more serious than usual. "I'm not sure I fully understand it myself, but..."

"This is about the Signers, right?" the little girl piped up.

"Yes," said Yusei. "Jack, this is Rua, Ruka, and Aki. Everyone, this is Jack Atlus. He's going to help us... I hope."

Jack frowned, feeling his suspicions growing. "Wait. This is about that man who attacked me. He called himself a Dark Signer..."

"That is correct."

Everyone turned to look. While they had been talking, Director Goodwin had come to join them. He paused, sweeping his gaze over each of them in turn. Jack felt himself being studied, evaluated, and all his information put on file for future reference. He thought that if this man dueled, he must be well-nigh invincible.

"Welcome," said Goodwin gravely. "It is good that you all are here."

"See, we found Jack Atlus for you!" said Ushio proudly. "I mean... um... it was totally all Inspector Sagiri's brilliant planning that did it. Really."

"Yes, yes, very good. You will both receive a commendation," said Goodwin. "But for now, I would like to speak with my guests _in private_, if you please. Miss Sagiri, would you see to it that refreshments are procured? Have them delivered to the solarium, if you'd be so kind."

"Of course, sir," she said. "Come along, Ushio."

"Huh? But I'm not..."

"I said _come on._"

She caught his wrist and dragged him down the hall, and he followed, unresisting. Goodwin waited until they were gone before turning back to the rest of the group.

"Now," he said, "perhaps I can allay some of your confusion. Shall we sit down?"

No one objected. For the moment, at least, even Jack was impressed enough by the presence of someone who was possibly the most powerful man in the world not to want to argue over petty things. Goodwin accepted their silence as assent and led them to the solarium. Normally it was meant to be a breakfast room - a light, airy, glass-enclosed space filled with potted plants and white wicker furniture. The floor was white, as well, perhaps made of marble. By day, it would have offered a spectacular view of the back garden. Now, the only light came from the moon, and the garden was no more than a swathe of darkness outlined faintly in silver. The marble floor gleamed as though it had been cast from liquid silver. The pale light made Goodwin's silvery hair and fair skin gleam, making him look like some fey not-quite-human being.

"Please, sit down. Make yourself comfortable," he said.

"Why do we have to sit in the dark?" Rua complained. He was hanging close to his sister, as though expecting that something might jump out at them from the shadows, though whether he planned to protect her or expected her to protect him was anyone's guess.

"I had thought," said Goodwin, "that starlight would make a better ambiance for what you are about to hear. If it makes you uncomfortable, I'm sure something could be arranged inside..."

"No, this is good," said Rua quickly, unwilling to be seen as a coward.

He scrambled into one of the wicker chairs and began scoping out the offerings on the table. Mikage, with her usual efficiency, had arranged for drinks and food to be sent up. There were pots of tea and coffee, as well as a large platter of cookies and pastries. Jack poured himself a cup of coffee, sampled it, and nodded his approval. Rua began tucking into the treats. No one else seemed to have any appetite.

"Now," said Jack, "tell me about these Dark Signers. Who are they? What do they want? And what have they got to do with me?"

"To answer that," said Goodwin softly, "we must go back a few thousand years, to a tribe known as the People of the Stars..."

* * *

Crow had been keeping himself busy. While Yanagi seemed more than happy to have a guest in his home to regale with stories of his travels, Crow felt that he needed to be earning his keep. Fortunately, Martha had trained him well in housework, so in order to keep himself entertained, he had taken to pitching in with the cooking and cleaning. Already, he had made it through a pile of unwashed laundry, scrubbed out all the bathrooms, and even helped with the grocery shopping. That part had been fun. After all, he'd been assured that he was no longer wanted for anything, and there _were_ people who were marked and then allowed to roam free. Most of them were fairly petty criminals, teenaged shoplifters and graffiti artists and similar, and they tended not to be marked as heavily as he was, but they did exist. Who was going to tell him he couldn't go to the store to help an old man carry his grocery sacks? Crow had made a special point of being extra polite and friendly to everyone he encountered, just for the fun of watching their faces when they realized who they were talking to. Right now, though, he was helping Yanagi clean his library - which meant that Crow was dusting the shelves while Yanagi sat by and supervised. Crow didn't mind that. It was nice and cool in the library, and a radio sat nearby, blaring popular music interspersed with the nightly news. Crow hummed cheerfully as he worked his way along the shelves.

"You young folks have so much energy," he remarked. "It makes me tired just watching you!"

Crow laughed. "Well, hey, if you want me to stop so you can get some rest..."

"Come on down and sit a spell," said Yanagi, indicating a chair. "Those books have waited this long - they can wait a little longer."

Crow scampered down from the stepladder he'd been using and dropped into the chair. It creaked a little and tossed up a puff of dust. It was nice to have a moment to sit and rest - he'd been going nonstop most of the day, and even the youthful energy Yanagi had been teasing him about was starting to run dry.

"So, tell me, how did you end up meeting Yusei, anyway?" he asked.

"Oh, he did me a big favor," said Yanagi. "Saved me from a whole heap of trouble."

"What kind of trouble?"

"He found me wandering around in the Director's mansion. Going completely the wrong way, too! He sorted me out, though," said Yanagi. "I probably would have been in big trouble if someone else had caught me!"

"Wait," said Crow, "what were you doing in the Director's mansion? You weren't trying to steal something, were you?"

"No! I just wanted to look!" Yanagi protested.

Crow laughed. "Hey, I wouldn't blame you if you were. I didn't get these marks for jaywalking, you know. Don't worry, though - I never steal from friends."

"Oh, well," said Yanagi, giving him a sly smile. "Maybe if there had been something I _really_ needed..."

"Aw, you wouldn't really," said Crow.

"No, probably not," Yanagi agreed, chuckling. "But I really did sneak into the mansion. I had to get a look at those ruins."

"Wait, there's ruins in the Director's mansion? Where?"

"Down in the basement," said Yanagi. "A whole temple. Quite a sight. You wouldn't believe there's something that old in such a new city."

Crow gave him a baffled look. "Why would the Director have a temple in his basement? Don't tell me he's part of some evil cult or something."

"It's not that sort of temple," said Yanagi. "It's a temple to the Crimson Dragon. It was worshiped as a god by the Incas. They say it ruled the stars..."

"So it was a good dragon, right? Not the kind that eats princesses and stuff," Crow guessed.

"Definitely not that kind of dragon," Yanagi agreed. "It fought with the evil gods and sealed them all up under the ground."

"No kidding," said Crow. He didn't believe a word of the story, but it amused him enough to egg the old man on. "You suppose that's why the temple is in the basement - to make sure the gods stay down there?"

"That could be it," Yanagi answered seriously. "The legend says they'll come back someday. It might be soon. Your friend Yusei, he's one of the chosen ones."

"Wait, what?"

"When he touched the wall of the temple, the dragon's mark appeared on his arm. I saw it with my own two eyes. It was like this."

Yanagi bounded to his feet and scampered over to an old desk, where a few pens and pieces of paper were scattered, and began to scribble. Crow wandered over for a better look, and saw that Yanagi had drawn an odd shield-like design. He held it up proudly.

"There! It looked just like that," he said.

"You don't say," Crow replied. "I've sure never seen something like that, and I've seen Yusei's arms plenty of times."

"It wasn't there until he touched the temple wall," said Yanagi. "Then it showed up clear as day. Come to think of it, he said something about a friend of his having one on his arm, too. Someone named Jack, I think... Yes, I'm sure that's the name he used."

Crow went still. Up until that point, he had been reasonably convinced that he was just listening to the rambling of an old man, and that the whole thing about the red dragon and the evil gods had just been a story meant to entertain him. But if that was the case, how had he known about Jack's mark? It wasn't exactly the kind of thing that was likely to come up in a casual conversation. And the old man sounded so _sure_ of himself...

"Tell me more about these chosen ones," he said.

"They're called Signers," said Yanagi. "They're the warriors of the Crimson Dragon. The legend says that someday, the Earthbound Gods will rise again. It's all in a book somewhere."

He got to his feet and bounded into the depths of the library. Crow watched with interest as the man who had just been complaining of lack of energy scurried up a rickety ladder with the agility of a circus acrobat. After some scuffling and muttering, he returned carrying a leather-bound book nearly as big as he was, which he laid on a table with a heavy thump. While he leafed through its crackling pages, Crow hurried over to get a better look.

"Ah, here we are," said Yanagi, turning the book around so that Crow could see. There was a drawing on the page of a dragon curled into a loop, and five smaller drawings showing only its head, tail, claws, and wings. The wings looked eerily familiar.

_Okay. I'm now officially creeped out._

"The Signers are the servants of the Crimson Dragon, and channel its power," said Yanagi. "When the five of them come together, the dragon can be summoned to help them. You can tell a Signer by the Dragon's Birthmarks on their arms. The Earthbound Gods are sealed under the ground, but as they come closer to the surface, they can take on human avatars. These are the Dark Signers."

"So they're like bad versions of the Signers? With the marks and all that?" asked Crow.

"Not quite," said Yanagi, frowning. "It says here that they aren't born with marks like the Signers are. The Earthbound Gods are gods of the Underworld. Their servants are people who have died."

"Can't be very good servants, if they're dead," said Crow lightly.

"They don't _stay_ dead," Yanagi corrected him. "The book says that when a person dies with a desire for vengeance in their hearts, they can pledge their souls to the service of the Earthbound Gods to be brought back to life as a Dark Signer."

Crow suppressed a shiver as he felt the cold finger of Fate run down his spine.

"Desire for vengeance, huh?" he asked, trying to sound casual. "So... just for example, if there was a guy who really hated Yusei, and he died, he might come back to get revenge?"

"Well, yes," Yanagi admitted, "that would be a possibility."

Crow was silent for a moment. In the background, the radio continued to chatter quietly to itself.

"...still baffled by the disappearance of a body from the Domino morgue. Kiryu Kiyosuke, who was fatally shot after a failed attack at the home of Director Rex Goodwin, has vanished without a trace. His body was discovered to be missing late last night..."

Crow swallowed hard.

"Oh, _shit_."

* * *

"...through their human avatars, the Dark Signers," Goodwin continued. "When all of the Dark Signers have gathered together, they will attempt to reactivate the old Momentum. The first time, there was only one Dark Signer present, and the amount of negative energy he was able to channel was enough to nearly destroy Domino City. With all of them gathered together, there is little doubt that the world as we know it will be destroyed. Before that can happen, the Dark Signers must be stopped, and you are the only ones who can do it."

"Wait," said Yusei. "I thought there were supposed to be five Signers. Where is the fifth?"

"I am not at liberty to reveal that at present," Goodwin replied. "Suffice to say that I am aware of his location, but I do not believe that he will be willing to help you. You will have to do this without him."

"That doesn't sound right," said Ruka, frowning.

"It is unfortunate, but true," said Goodwin.

"Well, I'm not buying it," said Jack. "If he can skip out, why can't I?"

"That is classified information," said Goodwin. "Kindly remember that you are here at my forbearance. I _could_ have you sent to prison for as long as I cared to. However, as this mission is more important, I am willing to grant you a conditional pardon. I can even arrange for you to have a tryout for the Pro Leagues when all this is over, if you like. But if this isn't done first, your career will be most effectively stalled in more ways than one."

Jack scowled, but apparently the promise of a free trip to the pros was enough to make him cooperate. He subsided with a grumble and turned his attention to the coffee pot.

"So you really want us to go out and fight badguys?" asked Rua.

"_You_," don't have to," said Goodwin. "Only the Signers must, but you are free to accompany them if it pleases you. At any rate, none of you need to go anywhere tonight. I have received... an ultimatum of sorts from the leader of the Dark Signers. They will not make their move until tomorrow at the earliest. Until then, I invite you all to remain here. Rest, plan your strategies, get to know each other better. Tomorrow, I will provide transportation for you all to Satellite. In the meantime, you are my guests, and will be provided with anything you might need or desire... within reason, of course. You have only to ask one of the servants and they will provide it. I will have someone show you to your rooms."

"What about you?" asked Jack. "What are you going to be doing?"

"Making preparations," Goodwin replied. "There is a certain amount of work that has to be done in order to arrange transportation for a large number of people to Satellite, and there are vehicles to take into account as well. I'm assuming Yusei will be wanting to keep his D-Wheel."

"So will I," said Jack.

Goodwin raised an eyebrow. "You have a D-Wheel?"

"Yes, and I'm not leaving it."

"Very well," said Goodwin. "Tell me where it is and I will send someone to retrieve it."

"I'll get it myself," Jack retorted. "I don't trust the thugs who work for you to take proper care of it."

"Jack, don't be difficult," said Yusei.

"I'm not being difficult - _he's_ being difficult!" Jack retorted. "I went through too much to get that D-Wheel to trust just anyone with it." Shooting a glare at Goodwin, he added, "Besides, if I tell him where my friends are, I wouldn't trust him not to arrest them when I'm not looking."

"Your loyalty to your companions is admirable, Mr. Atlus," said Goodwin tiredly, "but your suspicion is misplaced. If you wish to retrieve your machine, kindly wait until morning. Unless you believe your D-Wheel is liable to wander off if you aren't watching it?"

The two of them held each other's gaze for a moment. Jack was the first to look away.

"Fine," he said. "Tomorrow. First thing."

"As you wish."

Mollified, Jack backed down, and eventually allowed himself to be led to a guest room, along with Aki and the twins. Rua was enthusiastic about having a big bedroom of his own, but the others were more subdued. Ruka looked thoughtful, as though barely even seeing the sumptuous room she'd been given. Jack simply walked into his room and slammed the door behind him. Aki hesitated outside the door to her room, looking uneasy.

"Are you not tired yet?" asked Yusei gently. "I can show you around, if you'd like."

"Thank you," she said. "I'm... not ready to go to sleep yet. So much has happened all at once..."

"Walk with me," said Yusei.

Aki fell into step alongside him. She didn't really want to see the house, and wasn't sure she wanted to talk to anyone, but she didn't want to sit alone in her room, either. Yusei, at least, didn't seem to feel the need to talk, either. He led her silently and confidently through the hallways and out into the blessedly cool night air. Aki took deep breaths of it, smelling the soft scents of night flowers. She hadn't realized, before now, how warm and stuffy it was inside the Director's house. She closed her eyes a moment, letting the breeze cool her face.

"Are you going to be all right?" asked Yusei.

"I don't know yet," she admitted. "It's all so much to take in..."

"You've been unlucky," he agreed.

"_Unlucky,_" she repeated. "I've lost my family. I've lost my home. I've lost everything that was important to me. I've lost..." Her voice broke, and she balled her hands into fists, closing her eyes tightly. "He was going to _sell me!_ I saw it in those papers! He had been negotiating with someone and I didn't even know it. The only reason why he didn't do it was because they hadn't offered enough money! And he was doing experiments on me - trying to plant some kind of psychic triggers in my mind to control me, as if I were a robot that needed programmed." She turned a desperate gaze on Yusei. "He was going to _sell_ me."

"Nobody is going to sell you," said Yusei. "You're safe here. At least for now."

"It's not just that," said Aki. "I... I loved him. I still love him. I can't think of him without feeling..."

"It isn't wrong of you to care about someone who seemed to be showing you kindness," said Yusei. "And he didn't sell you, in the end. Maybe it wasn't only the money that made him choose to keep you with him. We probably won't ever know for sure." He paused a moment before adding, "And don't forget - you have friends here, now, too."

"Do you really think that's true?"

"I think so," said Yusei. "I see no reason why you and I shouldn't be friends. Ruka is already your friend, and I think her brother will probably follow her lead. Jack... well, it's hard to tell who he likes and who he doesn't, sometimes, but he's not so bad when you get to know him."

He smiled, inviting her to join in his amusement, but she only turned her head.

"I don't know what good I can do," she said. "I know I'm supposed to help you all, but I don't know how. I can't even control my own powers..."

Yusei gave her a thoughtful look. "Tell me about it."

So Aki began to talk, spilling out her life story in a jumble of words. Yusei listened silently, neither questioning nor commenting, and his silence made her talk more than she might have otherwise. At last, she ran out of words and trailed off, watching him expectantly. He seemed to be thinking - she could almost hear the gears whirring in his brain as he processed everything he had heard.

"I think," he said, "that you may be mistaken about something."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't think you need to learn to control your powers," he said. "I think you already can. You just haven't really tried."

"That's not true!" she snapped, feeling anger and frustration welling up inside her. "How can you say I haven't tried? I've been trying for years, and _it doesn't work!_"

"I'm not so sure of that," said Yusei. "You wanted to punish your father for leaving you, and you did. You wanted to hurt your schoolmates for rejecting you, and you did. You didn't consciously mean to. It was an impulse, like slapping someone who makes you angry - something you do without thinking. You can use them when you really want to, but you've never actually tried."

Aki stared at him as if he'd started speaking Greek. "But... but I..."

"Before you joined the Arcadia Movement, you didn't want your powers at all, so you tried to suppress them. You didn't try to use them for yourself, did you?"

Aki was forced to admit she hadn't. Yusei nodded.

"And once you joined the Movement, you stopped thinking for yourself," he continued. "You weren't using your gifts for yourself - you were just following someone else's orders." He regarded her seriously. "Your gifts are yours, no one else's. You should decide for yourself what you really want. I would like to see what you can do when you have a goal that you have set for yourself, and are ready to put all your strength into gaining it."

"You really believe I can do it?" she asked.

He raised an eyebrow. "It matters more if _you_ believe you can do it."

Aki hesitated. It felt strange, having the decision pushed into her lap. She realized that Yusei was right - she really hadn't been thinking for herself, not for a very long time. She had tried to please her father, her teachers, her mentor, always assuming that everything would be all right if she could just make them happy. She had the odd feeling that Yusei wouldn't ask anything of her if she asked him about it from now until doomsday... which, come to think of it, might not be that long, if they didn't fix matters. The only thing she could do that would make him happy would be to figure out what would make _her_ happy.

"I'm really not sure," she admitted, "but I think I want to try."

Yusei smiled slightly. "That would be a good start."

"I'll do my best," she said. "Maybe I can make up for some of the trouble I've caused."

"You haven't done so badly," said Yusei. He gave her a smile, the kind she knew was meant to be comforting. "If you want to hear about trouble, ask about some of the things my friend Crow got into when he was little."

Aki found herself smiling in spite of herself. "Was he really that bad?"

"He still is," said Yusei. "If I told you all about it, we'd be here all night. And we should both be resting. We have a big day tomorrow."

"If what the Director says is true, we don't have to start until sunset. We can sleep late," she said. "I can't sleep yet anyway. I'm still too wide awake. Talk to me."

So Yusei told her. Aki was forced to admit that he had been right - his friend really did know some creative ways to get into trouble.

* * *

Ruka was wide awake. It probably had something to do with the fact that she had slept most of the afternoon under the influence of Divine's drug, but most of it was from the shock of everything she had been through that day. Her mind was going in a dozen directions at once. So much was going on...

There was a knock on her door, and she jumped.

"Who's there?" she asked anxiously, as if expecting to find that one of the Dark Signers had dropped in for an evening visit.

"It's just me," said Rua. "Can I come in?"

Ruka sighed in relief. "Of course you can."

The door swung open, and Rua came shuffling in. He had forgotten to take his hair out of the pigtails he'd put it in, and Ruka shook her head and went to untie them.

"Hey, c'mon, stoppit!" he said, trying to squirm away.

"You look ridiculous," she told him. "Hold _still._ What are you doing in here, anyway? I thought you were having fun in your new room. I could hear you jumping on the bed from all the way over here."

"Well, it's a nice bed," he said, a bit sheepishly.

"So why did you stop?" she asked, as she finally managed to work his hair free of its constraints.

"I wanted to talk to you," said Rua. "You know. Making sure you're okay. You _are_ okay, aren't you? What happened to you?"

"That Divine put some kind of drug in my tea," said Ruka. "It knocked me out for a long time. Then I woke up, and he started giving me shocks to see if whatever he'd done had worked."

Rua's eyes went wide. "Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine," she insisted. "Don't worry." Actually, her skin still felt a bit scorched in the places where the wires had been attached, but mentioning that would only upset him.

"That's good," he said. "Um. I didn't screw up too bad, did I?"

"Is that what you're worrying about?"

He rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I thought I was doing the right thing! Misty seemed so nice, and she told me that Aki killed her brother, and she said Aki was going to hurt you too, and I was just trying to help..."

"I wish you had talked to me about it."

"I couldn't. You were always with _them._"

"Oh," said Ruka, blushing. "I guess I was."

Rua scuffed his foot on the carpet. "I thought maybe you didn't want to hang out with me anymore."

"No! I'd never not want to hang out with you," said Rua. "Well, maybe when you're being really annoying, but I'd never stop for good. It's just... I was scared. I was afraid that if I didn't learn how to do the things Aki was teaching me, that I might accidentally hurt you."

"You never hurt me before," said Rua.

"I know... but there was an accident while Aki and I were dueling, and someone _did_ get hurt, and it really scared me. I didn't want anything like that to happen again."

"It won't," said Rua. "You wouldn't let it."

Ruka mustered up a smile. "Well, I know that, now."

Rua wandered over to a chair and sat down in it, kicking his feet back and forth as he considered something.

"Are we really going to go fight with dead people tomorrow?" he asked.

"I'm pretty sure we are," Ruka replied. "You're going to come with me, aren't you?"

"Of course I am," he said. "Um. If you think it would help. I mean, I don't have one of those special Signer marks like they keep going on about, so I don't know how much good I can do..."

"I need you to come with me," said Ruka. "I have a feeling it's important." More quietly, she added, "Besides... I'm scared."

Rua immediately got up again and went to put his arms around his sister. "Don't worry! I'll take care of you! Everything will be fine, you'll see!"

"See, that's why I need you to come with me," she said, smiling a little. "I can be braver when you're around."

"We'll do it together!" said Rua. "As a team, this time."

"Right," Ruka agreed.

"Okay!" Rua cheered. Overwhelmed with enthusiasm, he bounded towards her bed and began jumping on it, and she laughed.

"What are you doing that for?" she asked.

He stopped jumping and let himself fall. "I dunno. I wanted to see if yours is as good as mine is."

"Well, is it?"

"I dunno, I haven't decided yet," he replied. He flashed her a grin. "Wanna help?"

"Well... okay!"

She scampered for the bed to help him jump. After all, it might be her last chance in a long time to have fun.

**To Be Continued...**


	22. Kiryu Predicts the Weather

**_NOTE:_**_ I'm sure by now you've all heard of the tragedy in Japan. If you want to help in the recovery effort AND get a fanfic written just for you by me about whatever you want (within reason), please click the "homepage" link in my profile and read the Help Japan entry to see what you can do. Let's all do what we can to help the people who desperately need it._

**Kiryu Predicts the Weather**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Mikage had not been lying about the paperwork. Finishing up any case required a certain number of forms to fill out, and the capture of Jack Atlus, anticlimactic though it had been, was no exception. Mikage felt a little let down about this - after the excitement of handling her first big case, she wasn't pleased to have to go back to doing secretarial work again. At least she'd managed to wrangle Ushio into helping her with it.

She sighed a little as she chewed the end of her pen. If she were to be honest with herself, she had to admit that she was a little disappointed in the way things had all turned out. She was glad enough that her job had been saved, but other than that...

_He barely even looked at me._

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she had been wistfully imagining various scenarios of how it would go when she finally met Jack Atlus face to face. He would be confused and frightened; she would comfort him. He would realize that she was his ally, and be grateful to her for her help, and eventually...

Well, none of that was going to happen. He'd barely noticed she existed. It seemed the rumors about him and that masked girl were true. That seemed to be the way it always went - the good ones were always taken and there was never anything left for her... except paperwork, of course.

"There," she said, signing the final blank. "That should wrap it all up."

"Same here," Ushio agreed, pushing a stack of paper toward her.

Mikage picked them up and rifled through them quickly. "Everything looks correct. Thank you so much for helping."

"No problem," he said. "Glad to be of service."

"You've been wonderful," she assured him. "I couldn't have asked for a better partner."

"Same here," said Ushio. "I mean, I've really enjoyed working with you."

"Well, maybe we'll do it again some time," she said. "Hopefully after this, I'll be allowed to take on a few more cases. If I am, I'll definitely keep you in mind."

Ushio cleared his throat. "Um, actually, I was thinking that I'd kind of like to get to know you better, you know, off-duty. So, um, I was wondering if maybe... sometime... you'd let me take you to dinner?"

Mikage stared. Of all the things she had been expecting him to say, that was the last possibility she would have considered. It had never once dawned on her that he might have seen her as anything other than a co-worker, and in her confusion, she blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"Oh, I... I don't think I'm supposed to date my subordinates," she said.

She immediately wished she hadn't said it. The change in his expression was awful to watch: the hope lingered in his eyes a split second longer before the meaning of what she'd said sunk in. Then he seemed to crumple in on himself, as though some internal support had been knocked away. He turned his head, avoiding her eyes.

"I... I understand," he said. He got clumsily to his feet. "Sorry to have bothered you, then. I'll just be going now." Then, more softly: "Goodbye, Mikage."

"Ushio..." she said helplessly, but it was too late. He was already gone.

Meanwhile, Ushio was storming down the hallways, oblivious to his surroundings. At the moment, all he wanted to do was to get as far from her as he could... No, that wasn't true. What he wanted was for her to come rushing after him, saying it was all a mistake, but he knew that wasn't going to happen. He had known all along that it was going to end like this. Right from the start, he had been telling himself that she was out of his league, that she would never notice a guy like him, but she had been so nice to him that he'd let himself believe that he actually had a chance. He never should have let himself get sucked in. He should have told her to get someone else to do the job. Now it was too late. He was completely, irrevocably in love with her, and she didn't want him at all. Oh, she'd been kind enough about it, let him down gently, but it was clear enough to him that she was just making excuses.

Maybe this was how it should be. Mikage was a classy woman; she probably deserved better. She would probably end up marrying someone who was younger and cleverer and better-looking than he was, and he would be left with nothing but the memory of a kiss...

Ushio let out a bellow of sheer frustration and drove his fist at a wall, leaving a dent in it. He cursed under his breath as pain radiated from his bruised knuckles. His feelings unrelieved, he reached for the pocket where he'd kept the paper Mikage had given him at their first meeting, the one with her phone number. He had carried it close to his heart ever since, and it was looking a bit ragged and dog-eared now. He unfolded it gently and stared at it for a moment, and then gave a snarl and tore it in half. He tore the pieces again and again, until there was nothing left but tiny shreds of yellow paper. He shoved them into a potted plant and stormed out of the building.

By the time he'd reached the garage, his temper had cooled somewhat, leaving bleak depression in its wake. He had half a mind to go find a seedy bar where no one knew him and get himself completely plastered. It had been a long time since he'd felt the need to do something like that, and the thought was tempting, but he couldn't quite bring himself to do it. For one thing, somebody might need him for something, and it would look bad if he turned up drunk. Besides, if it ever got back to Mikage, he had a feeling she wouldn't approve, and he still couldn't fight the desire to try to look good in front of her.

While he pondered his options, his gaze strayed over to a Security D-Wheel parked nearby. He eyed it thoughtfully. It would make him feel better, he thought, to go for a drive. The night air would help clear his mind. He wasn't really supposed to borrow Security vehicles for personal use, but who was going to tell him he couldn't?

_I won't be gone long,_ he told himself. _An hour or so is all I need._

With that optimistic thought in mind, he mounted the bike and put it into gear. He cast one last look behind him, still hoping against hope that someone would come and tell him that it had all been a big mistake. Then, with a sigh, he revved the engine and drove out into the night.

It was still early enough in the evening that the streets of the city were still busy, so he wove his way through the downtown traffic until he reached the wider roads where he could work up some speed. He wanted the feeling of movement, if only for the illusion of leaving all his problems behind him. The hum of the engine and the rush of wind served to drown out all his other thoughts, and he could have almost believed that he'd be fine if he just stayed out there forever.

He had been driving that way for some time, simply making circuits around the city without any particular destination, when he became aware of someone approaching behind him. It was another D-Wheel, a deep cobalt-blue one with a tracery of orange markings. It was coming up fast behind him, so fast that Ushio was forced to swerve out of the way to avoid a collision. The D-Wheel overtook him and continued racing through traffic, darting in and out between the other vehicles, cutting so close to them that some of them slammed on their brakes and blared their horns at him as he passed.

_Is he crazy? He's not even wearing a helmet!_ thought Ushio.

He quickly turned on his scanner and brought up the D-Wheel's information, already mentally compiling a list of offenses. An unregistered D-Wheel, going ninety in a sixty-five zone, driving recklessly, no helmet... Ushio almost smiled. If he was having a bad night, at least he could take solace in knowing he was about to make someone else's life much, much worse. He turned on his siren, slammed on the accelerator, and took off in hot pursuit.

The driver of the other D-Wheel heard him. He turned slightly, and raised one hand in an unmistakable one-fingered gesture before sprinting away at even higher speeds. He shot through an intersection without even bothering to slow down, and an oncoming car swerved wildly to miss him and nearly collided with oncoming traffic. Ushio snarled.

_Does this guy think he's immortal?_ he wondered. _He's gotta be high on something..._

Unfortunately for the driver, Ushio was an expert at high-speed chases, and after spending a few years chasing wrongdoers through the shattered streets of Satellite, weaving his way through the traffic on a wide, smooth highway was almost effortless. Within moments, he'd pulled up alongside the wild driver.

"Hey, pull over!" he shouted. "You're going to get somebody killed, you know!"

The driver turned to look at him. His face was deathly pale, and his expression was twisted into an insane grin that showed far too many teeth. His eyes were black - not the irises, which were golden, but every other part, black as a nightmare. But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that Ushio recognized him.

"You - you're dead!" Ushio stammered.

"Yes," Kiryu agreed, and there was something almost salacious in the way he hissed the word, as though the thought of death were something he relished. "You wanted me dead, didn't you? Well, now you're going to get more death than any of you bargained for."

"Dammit, when you die, you're supposed to stay dead!" Ushio snapped. "When I catch up with you..."

"Don't bother. I'm out of your league," said Kiryu. "Much as I hate you Security bastards, I have bigger fish to fry, so you're going to have to take a little trip." He gave a wild, high-pitched laugh, clearly pleased with his own wit.

"Huh? What are you-"

"If you see your little _friend_ Yusei, give him a message for me," said Kiryu. "Tell him the storm is coming, and I'll be bringing it with me. Let him know Kiryu's thinking of him, and the next time he sees him, _this_ is what's going to happen."

Ushio had only enough time to open his mouth to ask exactly what Kiryu was talking about, when Kiryu swerved sharply and slammed his bike into Ushio's. Ushio fought to regain control, but Kiryu slammed him again, and the smaller and lighter Security D-Wheel was thrown into the railing of an overpass. It flipped over and began to plummet towards the street far below.

_Oh, fuck, this is going to hurt,_ Ushio thought.

Then he hit the pavement, and darkness closed in on him.

* * *

Under ordinary circumstances, Mikage probably would have been going about her nightly routine: taking a shower, wrapping up in her robe, settling in with a cup of herbal tea and a book to enjoy a few minutes of peace and quiet before she was ready to fall asleep. Tonight, though, she couldn't settle down. She had filed her paperwork, made a sweep of the house to make sure everyone was where they were supposed to be, chased Yusei and Aki out of the garden and ordered them to get some sleep, and finally found herself at loose ends. Deciding that if she couldn't sleep, she might as well get something useful done, she had ensconced herself in her office to catch up on some of the work she had been letting slide while working on catching the escapees from Satellite. It was tedious work, but required all her attention, freeing her from having to think about anything else.

While she was occupied with this work, the door to her office opened, and Mikage raised her eyes to glare at a young woman carrying a coffee tray. She flinched a little as she saw Mikage's expression.

"Um... I saw you were working late, and thought you might like something to..."

"Do I look like I want to be interrupted?" Mikage snapped. "When I want something from you I will ask for it. Now, leave me alone!"

The woman set the coffee service down on the desk so hard that a spoon fell off the tray and clattered the floor, and then fled as if expecting Mikage to chase after her. Mikage didn't blame her. She leaned back in her chair, feeling slightly ashamed of herself. She couldn't remember when she had ever snapped at someone like that. She would have to apologize later. Reflexively, she reached for the coffee pot to pour herself a drink, but her hand stopped halfway there as a memory sprung to her mind unbidden of Ushio bringing her gifts of coffee and doughnuts. She sighed and pressed her face into her hands.

_I've never broken someone's heart before..._

The simple fact was, it had never even crossed her mind that he might have been interested in her. She had never considered the possibility that _anyone_ at Security would be interested in her. She had known going into the job that it would be hard work for a young woman to make herself be taken seriously in an occupation filled primarily with men. She had cut her hair short, worn minimal makeup, dressed in high-collared shirts that didn't bare so much as a hint of cleavage, and resigned herself to a professional wardrobe of neutral whites, khakis, and dark blue, all in an effort to be seen as professional. She had recognized that she would also be seen as drab and unappealing, and accepted it as part of the job. The fact that anyone had looked beyond all that came as a surprise. She wondered what he had seen that made him take an interest in her.

_All that time he was bringing me gifts and taking time to talk to me when I was upset... it should have been obvious what was happening. What's wrong with me? Have I been walking around with my eyes closed? And I _kissed_ him - he must have thought I felt the same way... I can't believe I was so stupid._

She shook her head, disgusted with her own blindness. Ushio had been good to her - he had always been willing to listen to her and try to help her. He had stayed up all night talking to her when she needed companionship. He'd taken risks for her sake, even when it could have damaged his career. It was unforgivable that she had hurt him in return.

_But what should I have done? I can't go out with someone just because I feel sorry for him..._

Or could she? It wasn't as though she got along badly with him. She'd always felt at ease in his company. For all that he might seem rough around the edges, he seemed to have a genuinely good heart. It dawned on her now that she had never really tried to get to know him, beyond those things that related to their jobs. Surely it wouldn't hurt to spend some time getting better acquainted. And he wasn't really unattractive, with his broad shoulders and strong arms...

_I'll apologize to him,_ she decided. _It's too late to catch him now, but I'll talk to him first thing tomorrow and tell him I've reconsidered. If he still wants me, I'll go out with him. If he doesn't want to speak to me... at least I'll have tried._

Feeling a little more relaxed now that she had made her decision, she reached for the coffee pot. No sooner had she touched the handle, though, when the door to her office burst open. A young Security officer stood in the doorway, holding a police scanner. His expression was grim.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Mikage asked.

"I was listening," he said, indicating the scanner. "There's been an accident. It's that man you were working with, Officer Ushio. I thought you'd want to know..."

"Oh, no..." she gasped, shaking her head in shock. "No that... that can't be true."

"He's at the hospital now," said the officer. "I'll give you a lift."

Mikage nodded mutely, stumbling to her feet and starting towards the door.

_Please, Ushio, wait for me..._

* * *

Ushio was in a dark place. He tried to get his bearings, but time and space seemed to have gone funny, and he was no longer quite certain which way was up or down, or even which was in front of him and which was behind. His body seemed to be a very long way away from him, but everything was so confused that he wasn't sure which direction he was supposed to go to return to it. After a few moments of trying and not getting anywhere, it occurred to him to wonder if he might be dead.

_Well, damn,_ he thought.

That was really all the reaction he could muster. His job was a dangerous one - he'd gotten up every morning for years knowing that this might be the day his number would come up. In some ways, he was surprised it had taken this long. It hadn't even hurt much, really. The most he really felt was a dim sense of disappointment that he hadn't had time to finish everything he wanted to do, coupled with a vague notion that things hadn't been going so well for him lately and maybe wherever he ended up next would be better.

He was still musing on this, wondering what exactly he was supposed to do next, when he became aware of the fact that he wasn't alone. Something was moving around in the darkness, pacing on long legs, sniffing at him with a wet nose, pricking pointed ears, swishing a long furry tail. It was a dog of pure darkness, and it was entirely too close to him for his liking. He tried to back away, but there didn't seem to be any way to move.

_Feeble human. So proud of your great strength, so easy to kill._

"Who the hell are you?" Ushio demanded.

_Someone who might be able to help you. You do need help, don't you?_ The shadow brushed past him; the air around it was cold and musty, like something that had been buried deep underground. _Do you really think you're going to make it into the light? Think again. You aren't worthy, you know._

"What are you talking about? I - I'm a Security officer!"

_Do you think a badge makes you a decent human being?_ the dark animal asked. It gave a rumbling laugh. _Or did you think that becoming a police officer would earn you forgiveness for your crimes?_

"What are you talking about? I haven't committed any-"

_Not even when you were young?_

Ushio hesitated. He knew, somewhere in the back of his mind, that he had done a lot of things that were, without a doubt, wrong. He remembered them clearly enough. He even knew why he had done them. He couldn't remember exactly why he'd stopped doing them - that incident had sunk to the bottom of his mind, and he had never felt the need to dredge it up again. By this point in his life, they felt like things that had happened to someone else. He tried not to think about them too much, but...

_You can't hide it from me. You like to lord it over the people of Satellite, but the truth is, you're no better than they are. You're worse than most of them. Most of them aren't thieves who beat people senseless for their money. Most of them never tried to kill anyone..._

"Shut up! Shut the hell up!" Ushio shouted. "I'm not like that anymore..."

_Then why did you attack Fudo Yusei?_

"That was different!"

_You haven't changed at all. You've learned how to hide it better, but inside, you're the same as always. You're unworthy. You'll never make it into the light._

"Why are you telling me this?" he demanded. This creature was scaring him, and the easiest reaction to fear was to get angry. "If I'm already dead there's nothing I can do about it!"

_You could bargain with me. Offer me your soul and I will grant you immortality. You want to live, don't you? You wanted revenge._

"Oh, yeah? On who?"

_Are you really happy that a boy from Satellite was given everything you've ever wanted for no reason at all? Weren't you going to punish the Director for hurting that woman? Speaking of her, do you know why she really rejected you?_

"I don't know, and I don't care," Ushio snapped.

But apparently this wasn't the sort of creature he could lie to. It only laughed at him.

_I'll show you why,_ it said.

The space in front of it rippled, forming a cloud, and inside the cloud were ghostly shapes with pale colors. Ushio realized that he was seeing an image of Mikage, and recognized the outfit she was wearing as one she'd worn a few days ago. She had a computer screen in front of her, and she was watching videos of Jack dueling. Her chin was propped in her hand, and she sighed from time to time, her face fixed in a dreamy expression. Ushio would have given anything to have her look at him that way.

_She has feelings for him,_ the dog whispered. _That's why she forgave you for not catching him sooner. She wanted him to remain free. The only reason she wanted you to find him tonight was to save her job. He's a much better choice for her than you, don't you agree? Young, handsome, talented... everything you aren't._

Ushio frowned slightly, or tried to. He couldn't tell if it was working or not, since he wasn't completely sure he still had facial expressions.

"So you're saying that if I join you, you'll... what? Let me kill the guy?"

_Yes. Him, the Director, anyone who gets in your way. You've been repressing your true nature for too long, pretending to be a fine, upstanding citizen instead of the warrior you are. What you really want is the thrill of destroying your enemies and seeing them laid low before you. Join me, and I will make you invincible. You can have whatever you want - money, power, even eternal life. What do you say?_

"I say _fuck off._"

The dark creature stiffened. _What?_

"You heard me. I'm not going to do it. You wanna know why? Because I'm a Security officer," Ushio declared. "Having a badge may not make me a better person, but it does give me a responsibility. I promised I'd protect the city and I'm damned well going to do it - and I'm pretty sure that means keeping you the hell out!"

The beast gave a growl that would have sent Ushio fleeing in panic if there had been anywhere to flee to.

_You're useless!_ the creature snarled. _Enjoy your reprieve, then. You will perish with the rest when the storm comes._

With a final growl, the beast turned and leapt back into the shadows, and Ushio felt himself sinking into darkness.

He didn't know how much time had passed, but gradually, he became aware of himself again. He seemed to be a little closer to his body, now, and he was dimly aware that it hurt. He wanted to go back to sleep, but he simply drifted in a dark haze. There seemed to be people moving around, very far away, talking to each other in urgent tones. After a while, he began to feel a little better, and the people stopped sounding so worried. There was light shining on his eyelids. It dawned on him that he might not be dead, after all.

If he was alive, he supposed he ought to wake up.

He managed to pry his eyes open, and after blinking a few times to get everything into focus, he found that he was lying in a neat hospital room with buttery yellow walls adorned with bland watercolor paintings. He might have almost mistaken it for a mid-grade hotel room if he hadn't had some sort of IV attached to him, and if there hadn't been what was clearly a nurse bustling around nearby. He felt something odd touching his face, and reached up to find a wad of gauze affixed to his cheek. The movement attracted the attention of the nurse, who hurried to his side.

"Oh, good, you're awake," she said. "Don't move around too much, now. You're still not healed, yet."

"Was I dead?" he asked fuzzily.

The nurse gave him an indulgent smile. "You were unconscious for a little while, but you're going to be just fine. Nothing wrong with you but a few fractures and cuts, and we've already started you on some medication to help you heal faster. You'll be on your feet again before you know it."

"Oh," he said. "I thought maybe I was dead."

"You're still a little groggy," she said. "That's to be expected. It will wear off in a little while. Do you feel well enough to have a visitor?"

Ushio thought about it. He wondered who would want to visit him.

"Maybe?" he said.

"There's a young woman out in the waiting room who's been asking about you. She's a bit frantic, poor thing. I thought if you were feeling up to it..."

_Mikage?_

"Let her in! I want to talk to her!" he blurted.

The nurse laughed. "I'll see what I can do."

The nurse scampered off, and a few minutes later, Mikage tiptoed into the room. She looked awful - her eyes were red-rimmed, her makeup was blotched, and her nose looked as if she'd been blowing it recently. When she saw him, though, she mustered up a weak smile.

"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, worrying me like that," she said.

He bowed his head contritely. "Sorry, Mikage."

"Oh... don't apologize," she said. "You must be feeling much worse than I am. I was just worried about you."

"You were? Really?"

She nodded and pulled up a nearby chair so she could sit next to his bed.

"What happened, anyway?" she asked. "All I heard was that you ran your D-Wheel off the edge of an overpass."

"I didn't run it! Some punk _pushed_ me!" he said. "Some idiot doing ninety in a sixty- five zone without even a helmet, no registration on his bike, and when I tried to pull him over..."

Ushio trailed off as he remembered just what else had happened. Mikage didn't seem to notice.

"You should be more careful out there," she said. "I was really worried about you. Actually, I..." She faltered, looking ashamed. "I was afraid it might have... might have been my fault."

It took Ushio a moment to figure out what she was getting at. Then he sat up with a jolt, winced as several fresh injuries made themselves known, and fell back against his pillow spluttering.

"You - you thought I - that I would... You really thought I'd jump off a bridge just because...?" He couldn't get his mind around the idea. All right, so the love of his life had rejected him, all his hopes were dashed and life no longer held any meaning, and so forth... but by tomorrow she might have changed her mind.

Mikage blushed. "Well, you did look upset... I guess it was a silly idea. I shouldn't be upsetting you with things like this while you're trying to rest."

"It's okay - I'm not mad at you," he said hastily. "Really. I understand. If I were you, I probably would have turned me down too. It's just..." He trailed off, his hands clenching at the sheets of his bed as he literally groped for words. At last, he blurted, "I think you're really, really special... and I want you to like me."

"I _do_ like you," she said quietly. She gave a teary little laugh. "And I really did want to go to dinner with you."

He gave a jolt. "Really? You mean it?"

She nodded. He gave her a faintly suspicious look.

"I though it was against the rules," he said.

"Well, you know," she said, blushing, "I thought it over and decided since we're not working together anymore, it's not _really_ like I'm your commanding officer. I mean, not for any practical purposes. Right?"

"Right, sure, whatever you say," he agreed. He settled back against his pillows, suddenly much more at ease. "Might have to be tomorrow, though. I'm not feeling so good today."

Mikage laughed. "I can wait. Whenever you're ready."

"You promise?"

Mikage closed her hands around one of his. "I promise. Just get well fast, all right?"

He nodded agreeably. Okay, so maybe really strange things were happening tonight, and maybe he did ache in every part of his body. All that mattered was that Mikage was holding his hand.

It was good to be alive.

* * *

The next day, Yusei thought, should have dawned looking like the end of the world. It should have been dark and stormy, with roiling black clouds and peals of thunder. Instead, morning dawned mildly overcast, with an inclination to drizzle. He wasn't sure what that presaged, other than that at least he and his companions would perhaps not have to save the world in the pouring rain.

At the moment, all of them were gathered around the breakfast table. It was quite a gathering. Yusei sat across from Aki, who was still looking nervous but resolute. Ruka sat between her and Rua, and the two girls were chatting quietly about visualization techniques. Rua was alternating between shoveling down waffles with strawberries and rambling about dueling to Jack, who seemed to be enjoying the adulation of a genuine fan. He was sitting next to Yusei, picking at his breakfast and shooting frequent impatient looks at the Director, making it clear that he thought he had more important places to be than hanging around drinking coffee. Goodwin, predictably, ignored him. It was unusual for him to join anyone else for breakfast, and Yusei was suspicious, but the great man limited his conversation to asking people to pass him things and commenting on the weather. Mikage was also in attendance, looking short on sleep but otherwise in good spirits. Part of her good cheer probably had something to do with Ushio, who was now seated at Yusei's right hand and apparently enjoying the chance to have breakfast in the most upscale place in the city.

"Are you sure you're feeling all right?" Yusei asked him. "I heard you took quite a fall last night."

"Ah, I'm fine," Ushio assured him. "Don't you worry about me! I'm tough as an old boot. It'll take more than a little fall to slow me down." He rubbed self-consciously at the bandage on his cheek. "They say this is probably going to leave a scar, though."

Mikage gave him a considering look. "Actually, I think it will look good on you. Every man of action ought to have a scar or two, to show people he should be taken seriously."

Ushio blushed brilliantly and tried to hide behind his coffee. A few people snickered, and Jack rolled his eyes.

"Just don't go overboard," Mikage added.

"Of course, Mikage, whatever you say!"

Yusei hid a smile. "Yes, please try not to fall off any more bridges. What happened to you, anyway?"

"I was pushed," said Ushio. He hesitated for a moment before adding, "Weirdest thing, though..."

When he didn't finish right away, Jack set down his coffee cup to glare at him.

"Were you going to explain yourself, or are you just going to stare off into space all day?" he demanded.

Ushio came out of his reverie. "It's just - I know what I saw, but I know it can't be real. None of you are going to believe it."

"We'll believe it," said Yusei. "It's been that kind of week."

"You really aren't gonna like it," said Ushio. "The thing is... the guy who pushed me looked just like Kiryu."

A ripple of interest ran up and down the table. Suddenly all eyes were fixed on him.

"Kiryu is dead," said Mikage. "We saw him die."

"I know, that's what I'm saying. It couldn't have been him," said Ushio, "but it looked just like him, and he called himself Kiryu. Just before he pushed me, he said 'Tell Yusei that Kiryu says this'. Something about a storm, and that he was going to bring it with him. Didn't make any sense."

"Well, you did hit your head awfully hard..." said Mikage doubtfully.

"I think," said Goodwin abruptly, "that this is news we are going to have to consider more carefully."

Ushio looked surprised. "Hey, you don't really think..."

"Let us say that I am open to possibilities," said Goodwin.

"Hold it," Jack snapped. "What's this about Kiryu being dead? He's not dead." He glared at everyone at the table, as if by forcing them to agree, he could make it so. "He's _not_."

Yusei bowed his head. "I'm sorry, Jack. There wasn't a chance to tell you..."

He didn't get any further than that. Jack had gotten to his feet so abruptly that he'd knocked his chair over.

"You had plenty of time to talk about dragons and birthmarks and gods, but you didn't have time to tell me that Kiryu was dead?"

"It wasn't like that," Yusei protested.

"Quiet, both of you," said Goodwin. He didn't speak very loudly, but his natural aura of command was enough to make both young men turn to look at him.

"Now is not the time to be fighting with each other," he said. "It is imperative that all of you be able to work together, so I suggest that you save this matter until later."

"No," said Jack. "I want an explanation _now_, and it had better be good!"

"I think," said Goodwin, with a pointed glare at Mikage and Ushio, "that we may wish to discuss this matter in private."

"Huh? I'm the one who saw him," said Ushio. "Shouldn't I get to-"

"Scram," said Jack.

Ushio took one look at Jack's expression and apparently decided that discretion was the better part of valor.

"You know, I think I'll go finish my coffee on the deck," he said, standing up.

Mikage agreed that this was probably a good idea and hastily departed, but not before throwing one last curious glance at the group behind her. She was obviously wondering what was going on, and annoyed that she wasn't going to get any answers.

She wasn't the only one who wanted answers, either. Aki and the twins were looking at Jack as though he'd just lost his mind.

"What just happened?" Rua asked. "Who's this Kiryu guy?"

"He was a very good friend of ours," Yusei answered quietly. "He wanted to make the world a better place, but chose the wrong way to do it, and he went to prison for it. He died a few days ago, shot by a Security officer when he attacked... someone."

Jack glared at him. "There's something you're not telling."

"That's enough to be getting on with," said Director Goodwin. "What is important now is that apparently Kiryu Kiyosuke has joined the side of the enemy, and has been chosen to bring the storm."

"What storm is this?" asked Aki. "You didn't mention a storm last night."

"The old records say that the coming of the Dark Signers into their full power will be heralded by a storm of darkness," said Goodwin. "A dark cloud will spread across the land, and anyone caught in the storm will be swept up in it to become fodder for the Earthbound Gods. You Signers, and anyone in your immediate vicinity, will be preserved by the Crimson Dragon's power, and I have taken great pains to consecrate this building, so anyone in here will likely be safe. However, I still think it best that you all remain in here until the storm has passed. I am given to understand that all of you are either orphaned or estranged from your families, so this should not be terribly difficult for you."

If he'd been trying to distract Jack, he'd succeeded. Jack whirled on him with eyes blazing.

"What makes you think there's no one out there I'd want to save?" Jack demanded.

"You can't save everyone," Goodwin pointed out calmly.

"Damn you, Carly is out there! And Saiga and Yuji! I'm not just leaving them to be taken by some stupid storm!" Jack snapped. He turned on his heel and stormed towards the door.

"And where do you think you're going?" asked Goodwin.

"I'm going to get them. I'm bringing them here," said Jack, in a tone that permitted no argument. "I'm not letting any _more_ of my friends die."

"Good luck," said Yusei. He started for the door as well, and Jack stopped to look at him.

"What are you doing?" he demanded.

"I'm going to look for Kiryu," Yusei replied, "to try to stop this storm before it starts." His expression turned grim. "He and I have a score to settle."

* * *

A few moments later, Yusei watched Jack race off into the misty gray world. Yusei had, with some reluctance, allowed Jack to borrow the beginnings of what he'd _intended_ to be the D-Wheel he'd planned for Ushio. He had a funny feeling he was never going to see it again. He reminded himself that if things didn't go well today, there would be no purpose in building anything. He pushed up his sleeve and looked at the unfamiliar red mark that had appeared the moment he had touched the dragon's shrine.

"All right," he said. "Where is he?"

In response, the mark began to glow very softly... and somewhere in the city, out in the fog, Yusei thought he caught a flicker of blue light. He was willing to bet that no one else would see it but him.

"Wait for me, Kiryu," he said. "I'm on my way."

He drove into the city. It was good that he had spent so much time wandering around it and familiarizing himself with its streets, because today, he could barely see them. All that was visible were the looming shapes of buildings, the occasional ghostly glow of a street light, and the shadowy shapes of human beings hurrying to get somewhere less cold and damp. Yusei ignored them all, following his sixth sense in the direction that felt like Kiryu.

He found himself driving towards the far side of town, away from the ocean and towards the mountains. They were almost invisible now, obscured by mist, but from time to time, one would glide into view from behind a cloud, and just as suddenly vanish again. It was not a reassuring sight. Yusei had the feeling that the whole world was fading away, and that any moment now he would find that even the earth had vanished into fog.

Then a new shadow emerged from the mist. It came with the hum of a D-Wheel engine, and Yusei glanced in his rearview mirror to see that someone was swiftly approaching him - a driver without a helmet who drive a cobalt-blue bike. Kiryu's pale hair whipped wildly around his face as he pulled alongside Yusei.

"I thought you'd come for me, Yusei," he said. "Have you come to watch?"

"I've come to stop you," Yusei replied. His voice sounded steady, but inside, he was horrified. Somehow, he hadn't fully believed that the dead could come back to life. He had wanted to believe that he would find Kiryu and he would be just as he'd always been, and Yusei could pretend what had happened that day in the garage was all just a bad dream. He hadn't been expecting to find this mad creature with the twisted grin and eyes darker than the spaces between the stars.

_What happened to you?_

"I don't want to be stopped," said Kiryu. "Not by you or anyone else. I've been given the task of summoning the storm. It's a great honor! You should be proud of me, Yusei. I'm going to clean this city up. All the people who kept us down and treated us like dirt will be swept away, and my friends and I will remake this world as we see fit!"

"And how does that make you better than the people who wanted to destroy you?" Yusei replied.

Kiryu gave him a glare of pure hatred.

"You can talk! You've already become the Director's pet," he snarled. "It's my turn to have what I want, and I won't let you stop me!"

He accelerated so suddenly that his tires squealed on the pavement, and Yusei had no choice but to speed after him. They raced through the wet streets of the city, dodging around traffic and taking corners at hair-raising speeds. Kiryu drove like a madman, weaving through narrow gaps just barely wide enough for his vehicle to fit through, swerving onto the sidewalk and dodging into lanes of oncoming traffic. Yusei gritted his teeth as he tried to follow, but he wasn't willing to take the risks that Kiryu was, and he was steadily falling behind.

Fortunately, he had an advantage. Kiryu had only been in this city a few days, and had spent most of that time either hiding or dead. He hadn't had time to learn his way around, and had to keep to the main roads to know where he was going. Yusei, on the other hand, had combed over every back road and side street while searching for signs of Jack and the other Signers. He reached an intersection and swerved abruptly into an alley.

"Come back here! Coward!" Kiryu shouted after him, but Yusei was already well away. He cut through a network of narrow lanes and shot out onto the main highway again, several yards ahead of Kiryu. He saw a look of shock flash across Kiryu's features. Yusei halted his bike crossways on the street, blocking Kiryu's path, and Kiryu was forced to screech to a halt. Yusei glared.

"I won't let you do this," he said. "Turn around now. We don't have to fight."

"Yes, we do," said Kiryu. "My soul belongs to the underworld gods. Even if I didn't _want_ to see you die in agony, I would still have to fight you. Lucky for me, I _do_ want to kill you. But first..."

He wheeled around and drove straight at Yusei. With a sudden wrench, he launched his D- Wheel into the air, performing an impossible leap straight over Yusei's head, close enough to brush his helmet. Yusei was stunned into staring at him as he drove off into the fog, wondering what sort of superhuman force was possessing him to let him do that. Then Yusei roused himself and took off after him.

The engine on his D-Wheel gave a whine of protest as Yusei forced it to try to gain some distance on his quarry, but Kiryu already had a lead on him, and the slick streets made it difficult for Yusei to keep pace on the winding road. They were already leaving the heart of the city, winding their way through residential areas. Yusei couldn't guess where Kiryu was going, other than that his general objective seemed to be to get as high up the mountainside as possible.

"Just a little more," Yusei said. He wasn't sure whether he was talking to the bike or to himself. Just up ahead, he could see the shape of Kiryu's D-Wheel, its blue color almost invisible against the heavy clouds. If he could just move a little faster...

His speedometer showed that he was going well over a hundred miles per hour, but to Yusei, it felt as though he moved at a crawl. With agonizing slowness, he drew even with Kiryu. The two of them looped back and forth along the curving mountain roads, winding their way upward. Kiryu turned to Yusei and grinned.

"Oh, Yusei, loyal to the end... I should have known I couldn't get rid of you," he said. "But now comes the time when we part company. If you want to see me again, I'll be waiting for you at the tower of Ccapac Apu."

Yusei stared, distracted. "Where is-"

That was all he had time for before Kiryu jerked to the side and slammed into Yusei's bike. Yusei tried desperately to regain control, but he skidded on the wet road and careened over the edge. As he fell, he caught a brief glimpse of Kiryu speeding around the next bend, laughing wildly. Then all he could see was sky as he went skidding down the slope.

He landed with a bump that threatened to shake all his bones out of their sockets, and an ominous crunch nearby told him that his bike had not fared much better. He sat up slowly and painfully, taking stock of his situation. He was scraped and bruised in a number of places, his clothing was torn, and he was probably going to feel too sore to move tomorrow morning, but he didn't seem to be badly hurt. His D-Wheel, on the other hand, had not fared so well. It had lost a few parts in the fall, and Yusei could tell that it was never going to catch up to Kiryu again like this. He would be lucky if he could get it all the way back to the manor so he could fix it.

There was a clap of thunder overhead, and Yusei looked up to see the clouds going black - not the deep blue-gray of an oncoming storm, but pure black, as black as Kiryu's nightmarish eyes. The darkness was spreading slowly, like ink through water, oozing towards the city.

_I'm too late,_ he realized.

The end of the world was here. Yusei got to his feet and limped slowly towards his bike. He was not looking forward to delivering the news.

**To Be Continued...**


	23. Saiga Takes the Plunge

****

Saiga Takes the Plunge

****

By: SilvorMoon

"Don't worry. I'm sure he'll come back soon," said Yuji.

Carly looked up from her breakfast to give him a plaintive look. She had spent most of the morning and much of the previous night fidgeting, staring anxiously out the window watching for something to happen. She wasn't sure if she was hoping to see Jack returning or expecting to see the rest of Security arrive to arrest them all. She had filled in some of the time by telling Saiga and Yuji everything she knew about the situation, even the parts she didn't understand very well about the Dark Signers. They had listened sympathetically and said very little. She wasn't sure if they believed her or if they didn't want to upset her more by disagreeing.

"But what if doesn't?" she asked.

"I'm sure it's fine," said Saiga. "Jack's tough and he's smart. He's not going to let anyone keep him down for long. Besides, he promised, didn't he?"

"Well, yeah," said Carly, eyes straying to the ring on her finger.

"He doesn't seem like the kind of guy who'd break his promise," said Saiga. "Just give him some time."

"But he's been gone all night," Carly protested. "And we haven't heard anything from him! He should have called by now if he wasn't..."

"Coming through the door," Yuji finished.

"Huh?"

Carly looked through the open kitchen door in time to see that Jack was indeed headed their way. She gave a glad cry and leaped from her seat, flinging herself at him.

"Jack! You're home! I was _so worried_!" she exclaimed, hugging him with a death grip.

Jack closed his arms around her gently, but all he said was, "Come on. We need to get out of here. Now."

"But I haven't finished doing the dishes," said Yuji.

"No time," said Jack. "This is _serious._ Whatever you're doing can wait."

"Are you in trouble?" asked Saiga.

"No, but you are," said Jack. "I'm going to take you all somewhere safe, but we have to move quickly. I don't know how much time we have left."

Carly loosened her hold enough to look up at him. "Jack, what's going on?"

"Do you remember that night we were attacked?" he replied. "There's more where he came from, and they're getting ready to hit the whole city this time. If you don't come with me... I don't know what will happen, but it won't be good."

Saiga took a last bite of his breakfast and got to his feet.

"Well, I've followed you this far," he said. "Come on, Yuji. You can put the dishes off for later."

"I hope the Wheel of Fortune is still where I left it," said Jack, starting towards the back door.

"Didn't touch it," Yuji promised.

"Good," said Jack. "Carly, you can ride with me."

They hurried out to the garage, and Jack found Carly a spare helmet used by Yuji's riding students. She climbed aboard the Wheel of Fortune, wedging herself carefully behind Jack. The bike wasn't meant to hold two people, but she didn't mind being pressed close to him. Yuji revved the engine on Talaria, while Saiga fired up his own D-Wheel.

"Follow my lead," Jack ordered, and they drove out into the city.

Right away, it was obvious that something was wrong. The stormy gray clouds had begun to break out in clusters of pitch black, like some sort of malignant mold. Lightning had begun to flash across the sky - bursts of light in colors no lightning had ever been, blood red and flame orange, poisonous green or glowering purple. It would have been beautiful if it hadn't been so frightening.

"What the hell is that?" asked Saiga, staring.

"A storm," said Jack.

"Doesn't look like any storm I ever saw!" said Yuji, wide-eyed.

Carly groaned. "And I forgot my camera!"

"That's the least of your worries," said Jack, rolling his eyes.

Unfortunately, he was right. They hadn't gone more than half a mile before they encountered the fog. It was black, like the clouds, and Jack slowed a bit, unwilling to drive into it before he understood his nature. As he watched, the fog drifted towards a small cluster of people who were huddled in a bus shelter, waiting for a ride. The cloud drifted over them and obscured them, and when it had passed, they were gone.

"New rule," said Jack. "No driving in the fog."

"I can live with that," said Saiga weakly.

The rule was more difficult to follow than they had hoped. The fog didn't move in an orderly fashion: it came and went without warning, sometimes moving in huge walls of darkness, and sometimes in tiny puffs that were almost impossible to see against the general gloom. Jack had to chart an erratic course to avoid it. He had Goodwin's word that anyone within the immediate vicinity of a Signer would be safe, but he didn't know exactly how far "immediate vicinity" extended and wasn't about to take any chances.

There were, too, dangers that the dragon's aura couldn't have protected them from. The fog may have taken human beings, but it did nothing for vehicles in motion, and those continued moving until they ran into something that would stop them. Several times they came to an intersection just in time to see a car or truck with no one at the wheel come barreling towards them, forcing them to swerve out of the way. Several shop fronts had been destroyed by oncoming vehicles, and the streets were littered with broken glass and other debris.

"Jack, this is scary," Carly whimpered.

"We'll make it," Jack assured her. "Just another mile or two..."

It seemed like he was right. The road up ahead was clearer than it had been behind them. Perhaps it was true that the Director's manor was on consecrated ground, because the black fog didn't seem to want to go near it. Jack was encouraged, and he picked up his pace, eager to be inside where everyone would be safe. All he'd have to worry about then was explaining to Yusei why he'd left the other D-Wheel behind. Everything was going to be all right...

Then he heard Saiga exclaim, and he looked over his shoulder to see a runaway tractor-trailer barreling towards them. Before they had a chance to react, it had smashed into Yuji's D-Wheel, sending it spinning and crashing into Saiga. Both of them were flung from their vehicles. Jack, a little further ahead of them, was able to jerk his bike out of the way, and it bounced onto the sidewalk and crashed through the double glass doors of an expensive boutique, knocking racks of clothing over as it skidded to a stop. Jack climbed off and staggered to his feet, bleeding from a few minor cuts left by the flying glass. Carly, wedged safely behind him, seemed to be in better shape, but she looked white and shaken by the wild ride. As soon as they both found their footing, they raced outside to check on their friends.

The truck had smashed into a building, its trailer tilted at a precarious angle. A few yards away, Saiga was staring at the wreckage with a dazed look. Yuji had fared worse. He had fallen from his bike and twisted his bad leg underneath him. He was trying to pull himself to his feet, but his cane had fallen out of his reach, and he couldn't seem to get his leg to take his weight.

"Yuji!" Saiga called, scrambling to his feet. He staggered, stumbling on broken pieces of brick from the ruined building. There was an ominous creak as the trailer shifted slightly.

"Saiga, stay back!" Jack shouted.

"But Yuji..." Saiga began.

There was another creak, and the trailer tilted a bit further, slowly gaining momentum. Yuji looked up desperately.

"Help me," he begged.

It was too late. Even as he spoke, the trailer passed its center of balance and fell. Yuji had time for one last panicked cry before its entire weight came down on him.

"_Yuji!_" Saiga screamed.

He ran, a wild, undignified scramble, until he reached Yuji's side. The entire lower half of his body had been crushed, leaving a rapidly spreading puddle on the asphalt. A trickle of blood fell from his mouth. His eyes were still wide with panic, staring at nothing. Saiga cradled his limp body in his arms, calling his name. Jack walked closer to him, his expression stony.

"He's dead," he said softly.

Saiga's head snapped up, and he glared at Jack with eyes blazing. Tears had cut tracks through the dust on his face.

"This is all your fault!" he shouted.

Jack remained impassive.

"This is your fault!" Saiga said again. "You were supposed to stop this from happening! If you had done your job... And you!" he added, turning on Carly. "You knew this was going to happen!"

"M... me?" she stammered. Her face was almost as gray as the fog.

"You and your stupid cards! You told him he should _beware of falling objects_! You knew something like this was going to happen, and you didn't do anything about it!"

"B-but I - I d-didn't..."

"I can't believe I ever trusted you! You said we were going to be safe!" Saiga continued. He turned away as if the sight of them both disgusted him. "Go away. I've had enough of you."

"You can't stay here," said Jack. "Not unless you want to die, too."

"I don't care," said Saiga. He turned back to Yuji. "I just don't care. Go away."

"But... but Saiga..." Carly stammered. She took a few steps closer to him, trying to take his arm, to pull him to his feet, but he shrugged her off.

"Is this how it's going to be, then?" Jack demanded. "You're just going to give up? Do you think that's what Yuji would want you to do?"

"_Get out of my sight!_" Saiga screamed. He grabbed a rock and hurled it at Jack, clipping his shoulder. "I never want to see either of you again! Get out!"

Jack turned away.

"Come on, Carly," he said quietly. "It's obvious we're not wanted here."

She continued to stand there, staring blankly. "B-but he..."

Jack took her arm gently and led her away. They walked into the silent city, hearing Saiga's hoarse sobs echoing behind them.

The next few blocks passed in a nightmarish haze. Jack led Carly onward until the pitiful scene they had left was far behind them, and Carly was trembling so hard that he doubted she could go any further. He stopped to let her rest, and she slumped against a wall, teeth chattering as if she were caught in a blizzard.

"Are you all right?" Jack asked her.

She shook her head. "Yuji, he... he just... and it..."

Jack saw her face go a few shades paler, and realized what was going to happen a split second before it did. In the next moment, Carly was crouched on the ground, vomiting up everything she'd eaten that day. Jack knelt silently next to her, holding her hair away from her face. When she was done, she sat up carefully, wiped her face with her handkerchief, and then wadded it up and threw it away. Jack put his arms around her and let her lean against him until her trembling subsided.

"Are you going to do that again?" he asked at last.

"I don't think so," she said.

"Then let's go."

"Go?" Carly repeated.

"To the manor. We won't be safe until we get there."

"But... what about Saiga? We should help him..."

"I don't think he wants to be helped," Jack said. "Not by us, anyway."

He pulled Carly to her feet. She wasn't shaking anymore, but there was a look on her face that said she wasn't sure she believed anymore that they would be safe, not at the manor or anywhere else. Jack felt a pang, and quickly looked away.

_I should have done more,_ he thought, and pushed the thought aside. He couldn't help Yuji or Saiga anymore, but he would not fail with Carly. Holding her hand tightly in his, he led her into the heart of the silent city.

* * *

"Are you sure you want to go home in this?" Mikage asked. She cast a glance out the window at the darkening sky. "That looks like a bad storm. Maybe you should stay here until it blows over."

Ushio looked tempted for a moment, but he shook his head. "I don't think the Director would want me hanging around his house for who knows how long. That storm looks like it could last all night."

"You're probably right," Mikage admitted. "He doesn't really like guests."

The two of them wandered into the foyer, and were somewhat surprised to find it occupied. Aki, Rua, and Ruka were gathered there, peering anxiously out at the front walk or leaning despondently against the walls.

"What's got you all down?" asked Ushio. "You look like your dog just died."

"Yusei and Jack went out into the storm," said Rua. "They're taking a long time to come back..."

"Why did they want to go out there?" Mikage responded. "Couldn't they have waited until after the storm passed?"

"That's just it," said Aki. "Yusei was going to try to stop the storm. Now it's happening anyway, so..."

Ushio gave her an odd look. "How did he think he was going to stop a storm?"

"By stopping Kiryu," Ruka explained. "I think. Jack went to find some friends of his to try to protect them from the storm, but he hasn't come back yet, either. I hope they're all okay..." She looked suspiciously up at Ushio. "You weren't planning on going out there, were you?"

"C'mon, kid, it's just a stupid thunderstorm," he said. "I'll be fine as long as..."

"Yusei's here!" Rua shouted from the window. He barged for the front door and pulled it open just as Yusei was reaching the front steps.

"Yusei! We were worried about you," said Aki. Then she stopped and stared. "You're bleeding!"

"I fell," he said. "My bike is in worse shape than I am, but it won't take much to fix it." He hung his head. "I couldn't stop Kiryu, though..."

"Nobody blames you," said Aki. "I'm sure you did your best."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, hold up," said Ushio. "You're telling me that Kiryu's really alive?"

"Yes," said Yusei. "Not exactly. But close enough."

"I'm lost," said Mikage. "What's going on? How can Kiryu be alive when we all saw him die? How can he cause a storm? And why is everyone so worried about it? What on _earth_ have you all been doing?"

"That's hard to explain," said Yusei.

Mikage folded her arms. "Try anyway."

"Well," said Yusei, "it apparently starts with a dragon..."

He gave the most abbreviated version of the legend he could. It wasn't too difficult, since he'd heard it twice by now, once from Yanagi and again from Goodwin, and he thought he knew it rather well by now. Mikage and Ushio listened with expressions of disbelief, but after being shown the dragon's birthmarks and seeing Aki illustrate her ability to summon monsters into existence, they seemed to admit that at least some of what they were hearing was true. By the time he was done, the storm had well and truly descended. The sky outside was completely black now, as though a cloud-fulled night had fallen, though it wasn't yet noon. The only light came from the glow of the city and the flashes of neon lightning across the sky. Mikage watched it nervously. Apparently her commonsense mind couldn't come up with a logical explanation for multicolored lightning, either.

"I suppose that _does_ explain why the Director was so eager to find Jack Atlus," she said thoughtfully. She looked around. "Where is he, anyway?"

"I don't know," said Yusei. "He should have been back by now..."

Rua peered worriedly out the window again. "You don't think the storm got him, do you?"

"The Director said the Crimson Dragon would protect us," said Ruka, but she didn't sound very certain.

"We'd know if something had happened to him," said Yusei, looking at the mark on his arm. "I'm sure we would."

Rua pressed his nose so close to the window that his breath fogged the glass, and he had to back away and wipe at it. Then he squinted into the darkness again.

"Hey, I think someone's coming," he said. "Yeah, there are people out there..."

Everyone hurried to the door to look outside. Sure enough, Jack was walking slowly up the path, leading a dazed-looking young woman by the arm. They stumbled up the front steps, and the crowd silently parted to let them inside. Everyone was quiet, each waiting for someone else to ask what had happened.

"You made it back," said Yusei at last. "We were worried."

Jack gave him a sour look. "You should have been."

"Who's the girl?" asked Rua curiously. "Is she your girlfriend or something?"

"This is Carly," said Jack. He glared around the room as if expecting someone to argue the point with him.

Yusei simply smiled at her. "Hello, Carly. It's nice to meet you."

"Um... hi," she said. "You're... Yusei, aren't you?"

"That's right," he agreed. "And this is Aki, Ruka, Rua, Mikage, and Ushio. Don't worry, they're friendly."

She eyed Ushio with obvious distrust; she plainly had not forgiven him for arresting Jack. "Are you sure?"

"Hey, I was just doing my job!" Ushio protested. "It wasn't anything personal!"

Rua cast a glance at the door, as if expecting someone else to come in.

"Hey," he said, "where's everyone else? Didn't you say you were bringing more people?"

"Yuji's dead," said Jack shortly. "And Saiga wouldn't go on without him. We had to leave him behind. Happy?"

There was a moment of stunned silence. Yusei moved closer to set a hand on Jack's shoulder.

"Jack... I'm sorry," he said quietly.

"It's not you that should be sorry," said Jack. "I should have done something as soon as I knew there was danger coming, and I didn't. Now those Dark Signers have taken Kiryu, they've taken Yuji, and they've probably taken Saiga. Well, I'm not letting them take anyone else!" he finished furiously. "I'm ready to find them and cut them apart with their own cards!"

Yusei smiled a little. "That's the spirit."

"Are we going now?" asked Aki. "All of us are together now. Where is the Director? I thought he would at least see us off."

"I haven't seen him in a while," said Mikage. "I suppose I could track him down..."

She pulled out her PDA and made several attempts to get through to him, but received no answer. She frowned, excused herself for a moment, and returned a short while later.

"He's not in his office," she said. "Not the one here or in the main headquarters, and he's not in his rooms. I can't get him to answer his phone, either."

"He's ditched us," said Ushio decidedly. "I always knew you couldn't trust that guy."

"I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation," said Mikage, but she didn't look all that sure.

"Maybe he went to the bathroom."

"Rua! Don't say things like that," Ruka scolded.

"Well, he might have!" Rua insisted.

"He can't have gone too far," said Mikage. "I'm sure he wouldn't go out into _that._" She gestured at the storm that was still brewing outside.

"I hope he didn't," said Yusei, frowning. "I wonder if..."

Even as he spoke, a door opened, and all eyes turned expectantly towards it, but the person who entered wasn't the Director. It was Vice-Director Jaeger, his face pale beneath its paint. He was clutching a small recording device in one hand.

"We have a problem," he said. "The Director... he's disappeared."

* * *

Saiga hadn't moved. He wasn't sure he would ever move again. He felt rooted to the spot, pinned down by the weight of Yuji's head resting in his lap.

_I can't go on. Not after this..._

Yesterday, he had been so sure that all his problems had been solved. Life had been perfect: he'd had work he enjoyed, he was surrounded by friends, he'd had a future waiting for him. How could it all fall apart so fast?

_I wish I'd never met those two. I might still be miserable, but at least Yuji would still be alive._

"Yuji," he said hoarsely, "Yuji, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen to you..."

He ran out of words. What good were they now? This wasn't something he could apologize for; it couldn't be fixed by talking to someone. It wasn't something his mechanical skills could mend. Nothing could ever make this right.

_Let the fog take me. I don't care anymore..._

As if in answer to his thoughts, the darkness seemed to gather more closely around him. He waited resignedly, but nothing happened to him. He was simply alone in a little bubble of shadows, feeling his friend's body grow cold and stiff in his arms.

Then there was a sound of footsteps, and Saiga looked up, angry that someone would intrude on his private misery. There was a man standing a few feet away, watching him. He was tall and broad, with fair hair and dark skin. His eyes seemed very dark, too, though that might have been just a trick of the light. He held his hands slightly apart, fingers spread, and Saiga could see something glinting between them like a fine wire mesh... No, it was a spider web, and a tiny spider was scuttling this way and that across it, filling in strands. The man paid no attention, as though this happened all the time. His attention was focused on Saiga. He looked oddly pleased about something.

"Who the hell are you?" Saiga demanded. "Go away."

"That's no way to talk," said the stranger. "But since you asked, I'm Rudger. Looks like you could use some help."

Saiga turned away. "No one can help me."

"What, you mean because your friend there is dead?" asked Rudger. "Ah, that's nothing. I've been dead for years, and I feel fine."

Saiga's head snapped up. "Don't joke. It's not funny."

"Who's joking? Do I look alive to you?" asked Rudger.

He stepped closer, and Saiga eyed him suspiciously. Come to think of it, he really did look a bit dead. His skin had an odd grayish cast to it that didn't seem to have anything to do with the foggy weather, and his eyes were so strange...

"You're one of them," Saiga realized suddenly. "One of those people Jack was so worried about."

"That's right," said Rudger. "But you don't like him anymore, do you? Haven't you ever heard the saying, 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'? We have common ground. That's why I want to help."

"So you're saying you'll help me if I help you get Jack, is that it?" asked Saiga suspiciously.

"Nah, nothing like that," said Rudger. "I'm not asking you to do anything for me. I'm just here to give you a little free advice. What did he tell you about us?"

"Nothing," Saiga admitted.

"Typical, keeping you in the dark," said Rudger. "Well, I'll tell you. I'm one of the servants of the gods of death. That's what makes me immortal. That's how it works - you serve the gods, you get immortality. And maybe, if you make the right deal with them, you get them to give you some other life you want..."

He held up his hands, letting the spiderweb shimmer in front of him. There seemed to be an image flickering at its center, growing clearer with every new strand.

"They could give you the power to bring your friend back to life," said Rudger. "You could have him back, as good as new. Better, even. They could put him back the way he was before you wrecked his life. This is your chance to undo everything you did to him."

Saiga stared at the image. It showed Yuji as he had been before the accident, his face smooth and unscarred, standing firmly on his own two legs without the aid of a cane.

"How can I do it?" asked Saiga.

"Well, that's easy," Rudger replied. "You just have to make the right offering. Hey, these aren't nice gods - they don't give anything without a payment. You'd have to offer something pretty valuable, understand?"

Saiga swallowed, his throat dry. "You mean... an even trade?"

"What else?" said Rudger. "Don't worry, it's not a big deal. Just offer the gods your soul and agree to become their servant, and they'll bring you back right away, better than ever. You'll never get hurt, you'll never get sick, you won't grow old, _and_ you'll have your friend back into the bargain. It doesn't even hurt very much. You can't ask for a better deal than that."

"How do I know you're not lying?" asked Saiga.

Rudger laughed. "What difference does it make? Either way, your life is over. Your best friend is dead. The others have betrayed you and abandoned you. They don't need you anymore. You're wanted by Security for a long list of things, and if they catch you, you'll be worse than dead. You've got no home, no friends, no job, and no prospects. If I'm not lying, you get everything you want back and get revenge on Jack into the bargain. If I am lying... well, you're still better off dead, aren't you?"

Saiga listened with a deepening feeling of inevitability. Rudger was right - there really was no future for him, now. Maybe he should just end it all. At least he'd be with Yuji again...

"That's right," said Rudger encouragingly. "You don't want your life anymore. Throw it away. We'll give you something better than life. All you have to do is take the first step."

He gestured to something in the distance, and the dark fog obligingly parted for him. Up ahead, Saiga could see an overpass. Someone had crashed into the railing not long ago, leaving a hole in it. It had been roped off with traffic cones and yellow caution tape, but that was really no obstacle. Saiga carefully got to his feet and walked over to it. He tore the tape in half, watching the loose ends flutter uselessly. It looked like a long way down.

"What do I do?" he asked.

"Just make the promise," said Rudger. "They'll hear you."

Saiga nodded. His heart pounded as if trying to use up the rest of its allotment of beats in that short moment.

"I... I offer my soul to the gods of death," he said.

_This is for you, Yuji._

And he stepped into the empty air.

* * *

"Gone?" Yusei exclaimed. "What do you mean, gone?"

"I've looked for him everywhere, and he's not here!" Jaeger retorted. "And look - he left this!"

He brandished the recording device, and Mikage plucked it out of his hands and turned it on. Immediately, a small holographic image of the Director appeared above it.

"Signers," he said, "by the time you are hearing this, I will have already departed. I advise you not to try to follow me - you will not be welcome where I am going, and you have a much larger task at hand. My last advice to you is to set out in search of the four control towers. The dragon cards you carry are the keys to deactivating them. Once they are shut down, go to the site of the Old Momentum and throw the main switch. If this work is not completed before the sun rises tomorrow, the Dark Signers will attain their full power, and the end of the world as we know it will be inevitable. I have given you all the assistance I can. If the gods are willing, we may meet again someday. Good luck."

The image blinked out. Everyone was quiet.

"That bastard," Ushio growled. "Who does he think he is, bailing out at a time like this?"

"This is bad... this is very, very bad," said Jaeger, mostly to himself. "The city is in chaos and the Director has disappeared! What am I going to do? We didn't plan for this! I can't deal with this all by myself..."

"_Shut up!_"

Jaeger fell silent, staring at Mikage. He'd never heard her raise her voice that way. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, but her voice was steady when she spoke again.

"Just be quiet, please, and let me think," she said. She began pacing the floor, chewing a thumbnail as she considered. "All right. There's no use in panicking. We'll just have to deal with things as they are. The Director has left us instructions, so I say we follow them as soon as we can. I think there are maps in the Director's office of the old compound that show those four control towers - I remember seeing them in his files. I'll fetch them and pinpoint the locations we need. Yusei, Jack, do you still have your D-Wheels?"

"I have mine," said Yusei. "It needs repairs, but I can do that while you're getting the maps. It won't take long."

"Mine is still in the city," said Jack.

"We crashed it into a boutique," Carly clarified.

"Fine. We'll pick it up on the way over. Aki, do you drive?"

Aki shook her head.

"All right," said Mikage. "I can. Ushio..."

He looked at her expectantly. "Yes, Mikage?"

"You can stay here," she said. "You've already done everything your mission required and more. You never signed up for something like this. I can't ask you to do something this dangerous."

"You don't have to ask," he said. He snapped to attention and gave her a salute. "I'm volunteering. Officer Ushio Tetsu is reporting for duty!"

Mikage's expression softened. "Ushio..."

"The way I figure," he said, "if these guys are the only ones who can stop all this, the more help they've got, the better, and if they lose, hiding back here like a coward won't help me anyway. If you're going, I'm going."

She smiled. "Thank you. It's very much appreciated."

"Very good. I'm glad you got that all sorted out," said Jaeger. "You all have fun. I'll just be going now..."

Mikage turned on him. "Where do you think you're going?"

"I told you - I'm taking my family and I'm getting out of here," Jaeger replied. "You can deal with this on your own and tell me about it when you get back."

"No," she said. "In the absence of the Director, you are in charge of this city. There may still be people left out there, trying to get to safety. There are accidents happening out there. Someone has to keep an eye on things and try to keep damage to a minimum. You _have_ to try to do something."

"I don't have to and I'm not going to," said Jaeger, folding his arms, "and there's not a thing you can do to make me!"

"I'll call your wife," said Mikage.

Jaeger flinched. "You - you'll _what_?"

"I'll call her," Mikage repeated. "I'll tell her that you had the opportunity to protect the city in its time of need, and you ran and hid like a coward."

"You wouldn't," said Jaeger.

"I would," said Mikage, reaching into her pocket. "She'll probably cry..."

"D-d-don't you dare! Stop it!"

"My hand is on the phone," said Mikage. "I'm dialing the number..."

"All right, all right! Have it your way!" Jaeger said hastily. He squared his narrow shoulders and puffed out his chest. "I'll stay here for the good of the city. You can count on me!"

"Very good. I knew we could trust you," said Mikage. "The rest of you, do what you need to do to prepare. We'll be leaving as soon as Yusei's D-Wheel is ready. Yusei, how long do you think it will take?"

"If I can find the tools I need, no more than half an hour," he replied.

"Good. We'll meet again when you're done. I'm going to go search the Director's office. Maybe there's something useful in there," she said.

They all went their separate ways - some to help Yusei in the garage, some to talk to each other in private or just to collect their thoughts before the final battle. Mikage was not surprised that Ushio ended up walking next to her.

"You're ruthless," he told her admiringly.

She smiled a little. "Well, thank you, I suppose."

"So Jaeger really has a wife? I never heard that."

"Well, he does. I've met her a few times. She's sweet, actually," said Mikage.

"Huh. No kidding," said Ushio. "I guess there really is someone for everyone."

She laughed. "Maybe so!"

Their eyes met for a moment, and Ushio blushed and turned away. To cover his flusterment, he turned to look out the window at the silent storm.

"You scared?" he asked quietly.

"A little," she admitted. "It's all so strange. If I think about it at all..."

"We'll be fine," he said. "I'll protect you."

"I think this might be just a little out of your league," she replied, smiling slightly. "But it's kind of you to say it anyway."

Ushio deflated for a moment, but then he rallied again.

"Well, maybe it is," he said. "But those guys will handle things, probably. And if they don't... well, you know, if it all goes wrong... I'd rather finish up with you than anywhere else."

Mikage blushed. "I hope it won't come to that... but thank you. That was sweet. I hope... I hope we have more time to spend together." She smiled at him shyly before turning away. "Now, come on. We have work to do."

"Yes ma'am," said Ushio, and hurried after her.

* * *

It had to be a dream.

Saiga woke up slowly, feeling as though his brain had been filled with tar while he slept, making his thoughts dark and slow. He had a vague sense of unease - nothing he could put a name to, but merely the feeling that came with having a nightmare and waking up with no clear recollection of anything but the fear it inspired. There was something about Yuji in it, and something terrible happening to him...

His neck itched. Saiga twitched a little and ponderously raised his hand, feeling as though it weighed fifty pounds. His fingers encountered something smooth and slightly sticky, and he realized that there was a piece of rope around his neck. Such strange rope - more like a bunch of spiderwebs than anything else...

"Well, well. Look who's awake. Our new friend," said a rough voice somewhere nearby. Hard hands shoved his shoulder. "Come on, get moving. We haven't got all night."

"Who are you to tell me what to do?" Saiga groused, but he opened his eyes.

He was in a dark room, in a place he'd never been before. The walls were made of rough stone, apparently eked out of the living earth. Torches flickered on the wall. Saiga was lying on a table, a flimsy wooden one that had probably had played host to innumerable lunch breaks, somewhere in its distant past. It creaked when Saiga moved, and he hastily scrambled off of it.

"Hah, he's got some fight in him, after all," the voice remarked. "You've had enough sleep for one day. Time to get a move on. You can sleep when you're dead, ha!"

"Who are you to..." Saiga began, and then stopped, because he'd just seen who he was talking to. Memory came back to him in a rush, and he leaned against the wall, feeling sick.

"It's all real," he muttered. He rubbed at his neck again, and tugged at the rope. It was frayed on one end, like it had been cut. "You _hanged_ me?"

"Wasn't sure you'd die just from hitting the pavement," said Rudger factually. "What difference does it make? You'd be just as dead no matter how it happened."

Saiga opened his mouth, realized he wasn't even sure what he wanted to say, and shut it again.

He found himself looking down at his hands, trying to see if he looked any different than he had before, but no, they looked the same as they always had. It was hard to believe that he could have died and been brought back as... something else. He still wasn't fooled. It was occurring to him that he didn't seem to need to breathe as much as he had before, and something about his heartbeat felt wrong, as though it moved with a rhythm unrelated to his body's needs. He wondered if he would get used to it. Then it occurred to him that he was going to have to, because he had already died, and where did you go from there?

"Where is Yuji?" he asked. "I want to see him."

"Ah, don't get your shorts in a bunch," Rudger scoffed. "We saved him for you, don't worry."

Saiga scowled a little. He disliked being played, and he was getting the distinct feeling that it had just happened.

_It won't matter,_ he told himself, _as long as Yuji is okay..._

Rudger led him down a hall and into another room. There was another table there, a sturdier one, obviously meant for serious work. Yuji was lying on top of it. Someone had removed his bloody clothes, and now there was only a sheet laid over the lower half of his body. His face was still and ashy pale. He looked so normal, all the way down to the bloody indentation just a few inches above his waistline. The upper edge of the truck had fallen on him like the blade of a guillotine, cutting him almost in half. Most of the blood had been cleaned away, but Saiga still couldn't force himself to look at the wound. He glared at Rudger instead.

"I thought you said they'd fix him!" he snapped.

"You want him, you fix him," said Rudger. "You're a servant of the gods of the dead, right? You can do it easy enough."

"What do you mean?"

"Do I have to explain everything?" asked Rudger irritably. He tapped Saiga's arm. "See that? That's the mark of your authority. Just tell him to get himself in gear again. He has to listen to you."

"What? Do you think I want him as some kind of _slave_?" Saiga demanded.

"Do you want him alive or do you want him dead?" asked Rudger. "Wouldn't make any difference to me except I went through all the trouble of dragging him here, but if you don't want him, I'll chuck him out again."

"No," said Saiga. Hearing this man talk about Yuji as though he were no more than a pile of garbage was too much. "I'll do it, just keep your hands off of him!"

Rudger just smirked. "Fine. Get going."

Saiga forced himself to walk a little closer to the table. He rested a hand on Yuji's shoulder. It felt cold and stiff, and Saiga had to fight the impulse to flinch away.

"Yuji," he said. "Hey... Yuji. Wake up. Can you hear me? Come on, wake up..."

He felt a pang, as though his arm had touched an electric current, and orange light flared from the new mark on his arm. It bathed Yuji's body, making him look almost lifelike. The wound on his chest began to close itself up. His leg, bent into an impossible contortion by the fall, straightened itself with a crackle of bones fitting together. The scars on his face began to soften and fade, leaving behind smooth skin. After a moment, his eyelids flickered.

"Yuji?" he said. "What's going on? I feel strange..." His voice was high and childlike and frightened. Saiga closed his hand around Yuji's in a feeble attempt to be reassuring.

"It's okay," he said hoarsely. "I'm going to take care of everything. It'll be all right, now..."

Yuji sat up slowly, wincing as though he had a hangover. He blinked a few times.

"Where am I?" he asked. "Did I hit my head?"

"Enough with the chitchat," Rudger barked. "We're on a schedule. You can talk later. Here, get some clothes on him."

He picked up a bundle of dark clothing that Saiga had overlooked in the dark room, and Saiga had to fumble to catch them. Rudger turned to stalk away.

"If I were you, I'd head for the surface," he said over his shoulder. "Remember, you have a debt to pay, now. Don't even think of trying to weasel out of it. The god is with you, now, wherever you go."

He was gone in a swirl of dark cloak and flicker of wind-stirred torches. Yuji and Saiga looked at each other.

"Who was that man?" Yuji asked. A note of pleading crept into his voice. "Saiga, tell me what's happening."

Saiga sighed.

"Yuji," he said, "there's something I need to tell you..."

**To Be Continued...**


	24. Crow Becomes Armed and Dangerous

_**Note:** After this chapter, I'm intending to take a short break from updating, both to work on whatever the winner of my auction asks for, and to get the final chapters of this scripted out. Once I return, the final duels with the Dark Signers will begin!_

**Crow Becomes Armed and Dangerous**

**By: SilvorMoon**

The sky had still been misty gray when Crow had struck out on his mission.

"Are you really sure this is a good idea?" Yanagi asked.

"Nope," said Crow cheerfully. "Probably it's the stupidest thing I've ever done. You can still change your mind, you know!"

"You're not leaving without me! I know the way and you don't," Yanagi insisted.

He strapped on the ancient bicycle helmet he had found somewhere in the depths of his attic and gave Crow a defiant look. It wasn't easy to pull off defiance in a neon orange helmet, and Crow had to do his best not to smile.

"Guess I can't leave you, then," he said. "Better hang on tight. I don't want to drop you!"

Yanagi nodded and clambered onto the bike with all the agility of a monkey, locking his arms around Crow's waist with a surprisingly strong grip. Judging from his expression, he had never ridden a D-Wheel before, and wasn't fully convinced he wanted to. Well, good. Crow loved to do a bit of stunt-riding himself, but he didn't want a passenger who took risks.

_This is going to be fun,_ he thought.

He eased his D-Wheel onto the road and began navigating carefully through the streets of the city. Crow had to admit that he was glad to have some help. He was determined to help Yusei and Jack with whatever was about to happen to them, but he was under no illusions that the task would be easy. After all, breaking into the warehouses on Satellite was one thing, but sneaking into the Director's mansion was another thing entirely.

Truth be told, he was looking forward to it.

The streets were strangely empty as they drove. Crow was used to Satellite, which was a place where you didn't draw attention to yourself , so it took him a moment to realize that there were a lot fewer people around than there should have been. He wondered where they all were. The weather wasn't _that_ bad, was it? Sure, the clouds looked awfully dark, but it wasn't really raining yet...

It was about that time that he found the fog. He hit the brakes and stopped in the middle of the street as a gust of it blew up the street. A woman, deeply involved with juggling shopping bags while trying to do something with a handheld gadget at the same time, walked out of a store without stopping to look, and the cloud engulfed her. When it had passed, she was gone, leaving only empty shopping bags and an idly blinking palmtop in her wake. The door behind her swung shut, but too slowly, and a bit of the dark cloud whisked inside the building. There were shrieks of surprise from inside, and then... nothing. Crow stared. It had all happened in the space of the time it took for him to draw a deep breath and let it out again.

"Did you see that?" he whispered.

Yanagi shook his head, not in denial but in horror. "The book said there would be a storm, but it never said anything about this..."

"Right. No driving in the fog, then," said Crow. He gave a queasy gulp. If Jack and Yusei had already gone out into this, if the fog had already taken them, if there was no one left in this city but Crow and his companion... How far had that fog gone, anyway? Was it in Satellite? Did it cover all of Japan? The whole world? He shook himself - it was no good thinking like that. The fog didn't seem to move very fast, and it seemed to have trouble getting into closed buildings. It couldn't reach everyone all at once. And maybe the Crimson Dragon would have some way of protecting its servants.

_And that's why I have to do this. I have to be able to help my friends._

He pushed onward. He would be fine, he told himself, as long as he was cautious and didn't move too quickly, and thereby rush into something he couldn't get out of again in a hurry. He could do that. He'd been planning to behave that way once he got to the Director's house, so why not start a little early? As he drove through the silent streets, it occurred to him that this city had become a thieves' paradise. He could have made himself a rich man in pretty short order just by walking into the buildings and helping himself to whatever was lying around. If the situation hadn't been so dangerous, he probably would have done exactly that - not out of greed, but for the desire to be able to give his children all the good things he wanted them to have, mixed with a simple desire for the fun of getting away with it. Even now, the temptation was strong, but he told himself that this was not the time. Maybe later, when all this was over, he could wrangle the Director into giving him some kind of reward for helping to save the city.

_Because damned if I'm not going to do it!_

He picked his way carefully through the city. The Black Bird had been designed for speed and agility, and Crow had learned to drive it in the ruined streets of Satellite, so guiding it through this city even in the midst of chaos was no great matter. There were times when he had to backtrack because pileups of abandoned cars were clogging the streets, but most of the time he could thread a way through what remained of the traffic. The fog was more difficult to avoid: it came from all directions, and forced him to do some creative driving to avoid it all. He proceeded slowly, checking every corner for looming danger.

"Are you _really_ sure this was a good idea?" Yanagi asked.

Crow glared at him. "You asked me that already. Besides, it's further to go back now than it would be to keep going forward."

What he didn't want to say was that he wasn't sure they'd be safe even if they locked themselves inside the house. Maybe for a little while, but sooner or later they'd either need to get out, or the fog would find some crack to seep through. The stuff moved almost like it had a mind of its own.

_Just gotta keep going forwards..._

They came to a bridge. It spanned a river, and there didn't seem to be any other way to get over the water, but Crow distrusted it. He looked warily at it, but the area seemed to be clear of fog, and there weren't enough obstructions that he couldn't get across it in a hurry. It would take more time to look for another way around, time that would give the fog more time to catch him. He'd have to chance it. Cautiously, he started across the bridge.

Halfway across, he realized that this had been a bad idea. The shadows had begun gathering at the far end as soon as he was too far to turn back, and now they fully blocked his exit. Looking in his rearview mirror, Crow could see that the way he had come was also blocked off by the same dark fog. It was creeping towards him at a leisurely pace, knowing that there was nowhere he could go, except for a long plunge into the water.

"Hey, Yanagi?" he asked.

"Yes?"

"How's your head for heights?"

"Not bad. Why?"

"Because we're about to take a short flight! Hang on!"

Crow accelerated suddenly, shooting forward like a rocket, straight for the far end of bridge. However, before he reached it, he suddenly swerved and made a jump over the railing. Praying that his aim would be good, Crow pressed the button that made the Black Bird's wings unfold, and he and his rider went sailing across the river.

"Yahoo!" Yanagi whooped, and Crow couldn't help but grin.

_I knew there was a reason I liked this guy!_

They landed on the bank with a bump, and Crow let his bike skid safely to a halt. He looked back at the fog; he could have sworn that if it were possible for a cloud to look confused, this one did. He stuck his tongue out at it before roaring away again.

"I think I see why you like this bike," said Yanagi.

Crow smiled. "Oh, this baby's special. A gift from an old friend. I'll tell you about it someday. But yeah, there's no better D-Wheel in the city, if I do say so myself!"

He had plenty of opportunity to prove it, too. The fog almost seemed angry at having lost him, and was now in active pursuit. Crow forgot about being cautious and concentrated on getting across the city as fast as possible. The dark cloud rushed after him like an incoming tidal wave, all the more frightening because it moved in perfect silence.

"How close is it?" he asked, staring grimly ahead of him.

"Too close!" Yanagi said.

"Just hang on," Crow answered, trying to sound convincing. "We're almost there!"

Up ahead of him was the long bridge that connected the city to the Director's private island. It was a straight shot, without a single car to block his way. He pushed the accelerator as far as it would go and wished he'd been able to get more of a lead.

"Go faster! It's still gaining!" Yanagi urged.

"I can't go any faster! The engine's overheating as it is!"

"Then do that flying thing again!"

"There's nowhere to fly to! We're too far from shore!" Crow shouted.

"Well, do _something!_"

_Easy for you to say,_ Crow thought, but he didn't say that aloud. Instead, he tried to coax a little more speed out of his D-Wheel, staring at the island as if he could draw it nearer by sheer willpower. It was so tantalizingly close; only a few more seconds would have him there... but the fog was closer, and gaining. It was like some kind of nightmare, as if his destination was retreating from him even as he pursued it.

_We're not going to make it,_ he realized. _It's just too fast..._

Then the fog stopped as though it had crashed into an invisible wall, billowing up against some invisible barrier. Crow stared at it, unable to believe what his eyes were telling him.

"How did you do that?" Yanagi asked.

"I didn't! It happened all by itself!"

Yanagi turned around to look at the dark fog, which was now spreading around and over them on either side but apparently unable to come any closer.

"It must be the red dragon," he said confidently. "The temple here is protecting us."

"Yeah, sure," said Crow, trying to feel skeptical. It was hard to put his faith in a Crimson Dragon, no matter how well documented it might be, but this fog was taxing his capacity for disbelief.

They rolled to a stop at the edge of the grounds, and Crow stashed his vehicle behind a particularly dense growth of shrubbery. There didn't seem to be any people around - even if the black clouds couldn't reach this far, no one in their right mind would want to be outside in weather like this - but Crow wasn't going to take chances. He crept from shadow to shadow, checking to make sure the coast was clear before beckoning for Yanagi to follow him. Slowly, they picked their way up to the side of the house, where they slipped through a servants' entrance. Crow held the door open for Yanagi before easing in after him and shutting the door gently. There didn't seem to be anyone around. It made Crow uneasy.

"Which way from here?" he asked in a whisper.

"Well, it was night the last time I was here, so things looked different... but I think it was that way."

"Great," Crow muttered. "Oh, well. Whatever they do to us when they catch us can't be as bad as what's out there."

Despite his pessimism, though, Crow was an old hand at avoiding people, and the staff at the manor was nowhere near as vigilant as the guards around the Security warehouse. They moved in clusters, chattering loudly to each other about what was going on outside and how strangely the Director had been acting lately. They weren't looking for anyone sneaking around the hallways, and it was easy to hear them coming and avoid them.

_Heh, I should have tried this before,_ he thought. _Who knew getting in here would be so easy? You'd think a place like this would have better protection. Heh, I guess even the big boss of Security doesn't like Security guys hanging around all the time._

Despite a few wrong turns, Yanagi was eventually able to lead him to the elevator to the hidden temple. Crow stood and looked it over, contemplating its complexities.

"Good thing Mikage sent me my stuff back," he muttered.

He began going through his pockets. A lock like this might have been daunting to some people, but it wasn't all that much different from the locks that held shut the doors at the warehouse, and he was getting to be an old hand at those. Every time he got past them, the Security people installed new ones, so he was always having to improve his methods. This one, he recognized as a variation on the one they had used about five incarnations ago. He clicked his tongue; people really should learn to keep up with the times.

"I can get past this, easy," he said, pulling some tools out from beneath his clothes. He began tinkering gently with the mechanism. He may not have been the computer ace that Yusei was, but he had accumulated a few specialized devices for this work, and he'd done this so many times by now that he could do it in his sleep.

"Are you sure?" asked Yanagi. "That lock looks awfully complicated. You don't want to set off an alarm or..."

The device gave a chirp and politely turned itself off, and the door to the elevator slid open. Crow began putting his tools away.

"Don't question the master," he said.

They scampered into the elevator, and they went down. Crow closed his eyes and tried not to let the small space unsettle him. He'd never really trusted elevators. There were a few left in Satellite that would actually run, but there was never any knowing when one of them might suddenly decide to _stop_ running and leave whoever was inside stranded for hours while someone tried to fish him out - or, worse yet, when one of them might break and go into a free-fall. One of his acquaintances had been caught in an elevator that had shut down, and had been trapped in that tiny space overnight until someone had finally realized he was missing and had gone looking for him, by which point he'd been a gibbering wreck, delirious with fear and dehydration. Crow tried not to think about what would happen if the elevator stopped while they were so far underground. He doubted anyone used this elevator very often, and no one would know they were there or be able to hear them shout for help...

But the elevator slid gently to a halt at the bottom, and Crow eagerly bounded out. He was so glad to be standing on solid ground that it took him a moment to really register where he was. He stopped and stared.

"Whoa," he said. "You really weren't kidding, were you?"

Yanagi looked affronted. "I wouldn't joke about something this important!"

Crow didn't answer. He was looking up at the temple, trying to find some way to get his mind around it. Crow's world had always been bounded by ruined buildings, old junk, and all the relics of technology. Ancient temples didn't fit into his worldview. He felt a little out of his league.

_If Yusei can deal with it, so can I,_ he told himself, and started boldly forwards. Yanagi trotted along behind him, but when they came to the staircase, he slowed down, looking at them with trepidation.

"I don't think I'm going to try all that again," he said. "You just go on up, and I'll wait here for you."

Crow nodded and said, "Sure, no problem." He tried not to feel too disappointed. He didn't consider himself a coward by any stretch of imagination, but now that he was down here, he would have liked to have had a little moral support. Still, there was nothing else for it but to press on, so he began clambering up the rough stone steps.

It was cold at the top of the temple, and the air smelled stale, as if it had been lying there undisturbed for thousands of years. Surely that was impossible, but his senses didn't think so. He rubbed his hands together, trying to warm them, while he took in his surroundings. His eyes were drawn, not to the elaborate carvings that adorned the walls, but to the small, dark passageway that opened at the front of the building. Crow had grown up begging to be told adventure stories about heroic wanderers discovering treasure in ruined cities or ancient tombs, but he had never thought he'd have the opportunity to try it for himself. As pressing as his mission was, he couldn't resist the opportunity just to take a quick look. After all, he rationalized, he might find something useful. Taking one last look to make sure that Yanagi wasn't wandering off and getting into something he wasn't supposed to, Crow turned and walked into the temple.

The light of the torches only reached a few paces beyond the entrance. Crow fished in his pockets and pulled out a pen-sized flashlight. It cast a wan puddle of light on the floor, barely enough to illuminate the narrow hallway. Crow picked his way carefully across the uneven stone floor. He was disappointed to see that there were no piles of treasure anywhere, or even any interesting side passages leading to mysterious rooms. It was frustratingly dull, really. Crow made a face, feeling cheated. He began to turn around, but as he did so, something caught his eye. There was a pale glow up ahead, so faint that he hadn't seen it when his flashlight was pointed that direction. Now he turned and walked towards it, feeling his spirits lift. This was more like it!

He came to the end of the hallway and found himself inside a chamber. His light wasn't bright enough to illuminate more than a fraction of it, but he could tell by the echoes that it was quite large. It also seemed to be empty except for a plinth at the center of the room, with a single object resting on it.

"Holy shit," said Crow.

It was an arm. It floated inside a glass tube filled with gently bubbling greenish fluid. The pedestal it rested on seemed to be some sort of machine, which gave off the eerie glow Crow had seen, and the glass capsule was hooked to it by a number of tubes and wires. Crow stared at it, fascinated. The arm in the tube had a red mark in the shape of a dragon's head.

"This just got really weird," he said.

Then he snapped out of his daze and went racing out of the room, back to the steps.

"Hey, Yanagi!" he shouted. "Come here! You won't believe what I just..."

He stopped. Yanagi was still there, but he wasn't sitting at the bottom of the steps anymore. He was crouching in fear before a tall, fair-haired man. Crow felt his stomach clench. The Director. Meeting Mikage and Ushio had convinced Crow that there were decent people working for Security, but he would never believe it of the Director. It was because of him that Satellite was still in ruins, that its people lived in squalor, that his kids had lost their parents to starvation or disease or prison. In the city, the man might be regarded as a hero who brought peace and prosperity, but on Satellite, the devil wore the Director's face.

"You," said Crow.

"Who else?" Goodwin replied. "This _is_ my house. You really should have known you couldn't get in here without my knowledge... but then, you are the most audacious thief in Satellite, are you not?"

"I'm not stealing anything," said Crow. "I'm here to help my friends."

"A worthy ambition," Goodwin replied. "However, your friends are probably beyond your reach by now... and you are still trespassing on my property. I also think it fair to warn you that I am not in a generous mood."

"Leave him alone!" said Yanagi, advancing on him. "He told you, he's only trying to..."

That was as far as he got. Goodwin lashed out at him with one hand, striking the old man across the temple and sending him sprawling.

"Hey!" Crow exclaimed. "Bastard! You can't do that to him!"

"He was in my way," said Goodwin, stepping over the prone body and starting up the steps. "I suggest you move before I do the same to you."

"I'd like to see you try it, old man!" Crow jeered.

Goodwin simply gave him a cold look and slowly tugged the glove off his left hand. The light of the torches glinted off something metallic. Was he wearing another glove underneath? Some kind of gauntlet? No, that wasn't a glove...

_Of course. Why do I expect anything around here to be normal?_

Crow gave the matter only a split second of thought before deciding that if anything else weird was going to happen, it could very well do it without him. He turned and fled back into the darkness of the temple. He heard the Director's voice echoing after him, shouting threats that he didn't bother to listen to. Security people, no matter what their rank, always shouted threats at him. Crow concentrated on finding a place to hide, some dark shadow where he wouldn't be noticed, but the hallway was so narrow that there was no way that Goodwin wouldn't walk into him. The only other place to hide was the chamber. If he was lucky, perhaps he could crouch in a shadow and slip out behind Goodwin's back. Then he could grab Yanagi and get to the elevator to make their escape. Not the best plan, but there weren't a lot of other options. Crow dove for a far corner and huddled down as small as he could, bracing himself to spring as soon as he saw an opening.

There wasn't going to be an opening. Goodwin paused in the doorway, blocking the exit, and peered into the darkness.

"I know you're in here," he said. "I also happen to know that there are no other exits besides the one I am standing in. Unless you have learned to walk through walls, you can't get out. Since I am in a hurry, I suggest that you come out of hiding now, while I am feeling inclined to be lenient."

_Like hell you are!_ Crow thought.

He wasn't gullible enough to believe that Goowin was likely to let him just walk away without punishment. He also doubted that the man was just going to stand there and wait for him until one of them got bored. No, sooner or later he would do something - call for backup, or possibly produce a gun and start firing at random until he hit something. Crow didn't put it past a man like Goodwin to carry a concealed weapon somewhere on his person.

A weapon... Crow found himself thinking fleetingly of the pistol he'd taken from Kiryu. If only he had it now, he could fight back. Would that do him any good? What was the punishment for assaulting the most important man in the world? Whatever it was, it would probably make what had been done to Kiryu look like a slap on the wrist. Without a weapon, though, Crow wasn't sure what chance he had of getting out of this situation. There was nothing in his toolkit more threatening than a lockpick, and the only other thing in the room that could possibly be used for one was...

_Well, at least it will make for an interesting headline._

Crow dashed to the middle of the room and hefted the pod with the arm. It was heavier than he'd expected, and slippery with condensation, and he fumbled and nearly dropped it. He cursed, certain that Goodwin would take advantage of that moment of clumsiness. Instead, Goodwin stood rooted to the spot, his face going blotchy with outrage.

"Get your vile, filthy hands off that!" he snarled.

Crow darted a few paces backwards. "Make me!"

Goodwin made a lunge at him, and Crow easily dodged out of the way, watching his opponent with interest. It seemed that Goodwin wasn't just annoyed with him for his impertinence; he was almost blind with rage, his earlier cool completely destroyed. Crow found himself wondering just why the Director was keeping an arm in a vat in the first place.

_Plenty of time to find out later,_ he told himself. Now was the time to try to get out of here. He feinted to the right, waited for Goodwin to charge at him, and danced lightly out of the way. Goodwin tried to turn, but he'd already built up too much momentum, and slammed sideways into the wall. Crow took his opportunity to make a run for it. Behind him, he could hear Goodwin cursing. Had he injured himself? Crow certainly hoped so. He couldn't repress a grin as he ran.

_Look at me - I'm an armed fugitive!_

When he reached the exit, he made a few rapid calculations. It would be only seconds before Goodwin recovered himself and came after him. The most obvious choice would be to make a run for the elevator and escape, but a quick glance showed that Yanagi was still out cold. There was no way that Crow could get him to the elevator before Goodwin caught up with him, especially if he was carrying the arm, too, and it went against Crow's nature to let the Director of Security have anything he wanted that much.

Crow had never been one to take the obvious route, though. Instead, he turned and took off to the side, running around the edge of the pyramid. It had been built like a stack of increasingly smaller platforms, rather than with the slanted sides of a true pyramid. Crow's thought was to try to move upwards, towards the pinnacle. He had learned from experience that people tended to search from side to side, rather than looking upwards, and the carvings on the walls offered plenty of hand- and foot-holds for a nimble climber. Crow scurried around the ledge as quietly as he could until he'd reached the back of the pyramid. In the echoing room, he heard Goodwin's footsteps as he ran out of the chamber and then stopped, apparently trying to figure out where his quarry had gone. Crow smiled, pleased at having put one over on his enemy, and reached out to touch a particularly elaborate carving of a dragon so he could begin to climb.

The rock glowed under his fingers. Crow tried to pull away, afraid that the light would give away his hiding place, but he found that he couldn't move. He closed his eyes, but the light filled his mind anyway. His ears seemed to ring with a distant, echoing cry, like the song of a whale. He had the overpowering feeling that something was looking at him.

_Is this... the Crimson Dragon?_ he wondered. _Please... help me out, here. I need to get away, so I can help my friends. Yusei and Jack... you chose them, right? I want to help them. I'll help you, too, if that's what it takes. Just don't let this guy get me..._

There was another cry, closer and louder this time. Crow felt a sudden swooping sensation, as if the earth had suddenly dropped from beneath his feet, and his vision went black. He tried to cry out, but there didn't seem to be any air to breathe. He had an instant to panic before he felt earth under his feet again, coming up fast to meet him, and he staggered and fell to his knees, panting. A moment later, there was a soft _whump_ of displaced air, and he looked up in time to see his D-Wheel land a few feet away.

"Whoa," he said. He smiled up at the sky. "You do good work, dragon!"

He thought he heard a distant response, but it was so faint he couldn't be sure it was just his imagination.

Crow took a moment to get his bearings. He still had the capsule tucked safely under one arm. The mark on it was glowing softly. Crow could see tendrils of mist creeping around him, but never coming near enough to touch, and he suspected it was the dragon's mark that was defending him. Well, that was one good thing, at least. The earth underneath his hands was covered in cracked and crumbling asphalt, and he didn't have to look up to guess what he would see: the shattered hulks of buildings, abandoned by their first occupants to crumble to dust, and to become shelter for the castoffs of society. He was back in Satellite.

Lightning flashed, giving the world an eerie glow, distorting appearances with wild colors. The flashes seemed to be congregating, twisting into a cyclone like threads being bound into a skein. They were gathering loosely over the center of the island.

_That's where it's going to happen,_ Crow decided. He didn't stop to consider what "it" might be. After all, the dragon had answered his request: he'd said he wanted to help, and this was where it had put him, so presumably there was _some_ good he could do here.

"Here goes nothing," he said, and he got on his D-Wheel and drove.

* * *

Goodwin had been forced to admit that Crow had escaped, and had taken the arm with him. Curse that red dragon! What had made it decide to intervene at just that moment? Was it trying to rebel against him? Well, he'd soon sort that out. At least he could still go through with the other half of his plan. He descended the steps of the temple and paused at the base to inspect Yanagi's prone body. He nudged him slightly with a toe.

"_He's not dead,_" a voice remarked.

Goodwin glared. "How would you know?"

Dr. Fudo knelt next to Yanagi, touching his temple with transparent fingers. "_I'm a ghost. If he were on his way over to the other side, I think I'd notice. But this one still has a few more years left in him, if people would stop knocking him around. What did you have to hit him for? I'm sure you used to know better than that._"

"I don't have time for your lectures," Goodwin snapped, starting towards the door.

"_No, you don't,_" said Dr. Fudo sadly. "_You never did. I suppose that's why you never could become a great scientist. You wanted the glory of making great discoveries, but you never wanted to learn what other people discovered before you._"

"That is not remotely relevant," said Goodwin.

"_You don't think that it's relevant that you think about what you want to the exclusion of everything else?_"

"I am leaving," said Goodwin. "If you're worried about the old man, stay here and tend to him yourself."

"_Perhaps I will,_" said Dr. Fudo. "_Someone should take care of your people for you._"

Goodwin decided not to dignify that with an answer and walked towards the elevator. Mercifully, Dr. Fudo chose not to follow him, but stayed kneeling next to the unconscious old man. Goodwin wondered fleetingly what the ghost was doing and whether it would help.

_What difference will keeping an old man alive a few more hours do, anyway? It will all be the same by tomorrow,_ Goodwin told himself.

It was easy enough to slip out of the house. No one was paying any attention to anything but the unearthly weather outside. Who would notice a man wandering around his own home, anyway? By the time anyone realized that anything was amiss, he'd be long gone. He paused briefly in his room, long enough to exchange his elegant clothes for a battered leather jacket, equally timeworn jeans, an old pair of boots, and a dusty motorcycle helmet. It had been a long time since he'd worn them, but they still fit. Once his telltale hair had been tucked out of sight, it would be unlikely that anyone would recognize him, even if there was anyone left in the city to look at him.

He didn't have his old D-Wheel anymore, and the thought of it made him mildly wistful. It would have been more apt to return to the island the same way he'd left it, but sadly the machine had not survived its journey as well has he had. He didn't even keep a bike of his own anymore - he didn't want people thinking he could use one, and possibly getting ideas about him. This was a hub of Security activity, though, and there were always a few Security-issue D-Wheels close at hand. He helped himself to one of them and drove into the city.

He drove at a leisurely pace, as though he had all the time in the world. There were still scraps of fog hovering over the city, seeking out the last few stragglers who'd had the sense to stay indoors. It didn't trouble Goodwin. Why should it? He was the last surviving descendent of the priests of the stars, and their blood, however diluted, still ran in his veins. A little thing like a fog wasn't going to tangle with him.

It was strange to see the city so empty. Usually it bustled with people, happy tourists and prosperous businesspeople, filling the streets with life and sound. Hadn't the sight once filled Goodwin's heart with pride? His goals might have changed over the years, but after he had worked so long to build the city, seeing it reduced to this gave him an unexpected pang.

_Stop it. You're getting as bad as that blasted ghost. You'll make new cities soon enough..._

There were no guards at the passage to the island. Whether they had been taken by the fog, or whether they had simply fled, Goodwin didn't bother to surmise. All that mattered to him was that his path was open to go where he wanted. He smiled a little as he drove. It had been seventeen years - nearly two decades of pretending to be the perfect leader, always wearing the right public face, never putting a toe out of line. It was good to finally drop all pretense and do exactly as he pleased. It was almost a pity there was no one there to see him.

He emerged from the far side of the tunnel and slowed a bit, taking in the unfamiliar scenery. He came here so rarely that it was always a shock to see the contrast between his beautiful city and the pile of rubble that this island had become. It certainly hadn't improved since the days he'd lived there. His eyes were drawn towards the center of the island, where he knew the Dark Signers would be gathering. It was the place where it all began, and the place he intended for it to end... and where it would start over. He would make it start over. With that thought fixed firmly in mind, he began to drive.

****

To Be Continued...


	25. Aki Hears a Bedtime Story

_**Note:** Sorry for the long delay! Between the site being glitchy and my internet dying, that took longer than I intended. Hopefully there will be no more disruptions. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Higuchimon for kindly looking over my attempts at writing a duel and correcting my mistakes._

**Aki Hears a Bedtime Story**

**By: SilvorMoon**

It was a silent and solemn procession that finally arrived on Satellite. Mikage, who was in the lead, halted her jeep just beyond the Security checkpoint, and the others pulled to a stop to see what she wanted. Ushio was driving the other jeep with Rua and Ruka in tow. Yusei had managed to get his D-Wheel running again, though the trim still looked battered in places. Jack had recovered his Wheel of Fortune, and Carly had scrounged up a spare helmet and Duel Disk from somewhere. She had insisted on coming along, and had raised enough of a fuss when Mikage had gently suggested that she might stay behind that no one had felt it was worth it to push the matter.

"I didn't think I'd ever end up back here again," she said, looking around apprehensively. "At least, not on purpose."

Mikage got out of her vehicle and spread her map out on its hood. Everyone gathered around for a better look.

"The closest tower is here," she said, pointing at a spot on the map with her pen. "The others are here, here, and here. This point is where the old Momentum was, obviously."

"We should go to the closest one first!" Rua opined.

"It would be best if we split up," said Yusei. "We don't have a lot of time to spare. Kiryu said he would be at the Ccapac Apu tower..."

"That's this one," said Mikage, indicating a site a few miles to the northeast.

"Then we'll go this way," said Jack, pointing at the far side of the island.

Ruka looked thoughtful a moment, as if listening to something, then nodded.

"I think this is the one I want," she said, touching a place on the map.

"I know how to find that," Ushio assured her.

"Then I guess the last one is mine," said Aki.

Yusei nodded. "Let's meet up at the bridge to the old Momentum. That's a dangerous area - we may not want to cross alone."

"I'll be there. Don't keep us waiting," said Jack.

He revved his engine and took off so quickly that Carly gave a squeak of surprise and nearly fell off the bike. Yusei almost smiled.

"Jack is right. We should hurry," he said. "I'll see you all soon. Good luck."

As Yusei drove off, Ushio turned to Mikage.

"Looks like we're going the same way for a while," he said. "Want to travel together?"

"We might as well," Mikage agreed. "I have a map, but I don't really know my way around..."

"Leave it to me," said Ushio. "I know this whole island back to front."

"I'll follow your lead then," she replied. She began to fold up the map, then stopped. "Shoo! Get off!" She brushed at a spider that was wandering across the hood of the jeep. It landed with a plop on the asphalt and went scuttling off into the shadows.

They began to drive, keeping a slow pace on the rough roads. Making any progress at all across the shattered pavement took all the attention they could muster, but their passengers were left with nothing to do but stare at the passing scenery.

"I can't believe this place," Aki murmured. "Do people really live like this?"

"It's all broken up..." said Rua. "Where do the people live?"

"Wherever they can," said Ushio. "This ain't exactly what you'd call a tourist attraction. It's a rough place. You should have known that."

"But I thought it was better than _this_," said Ruka.

Aki silently agreed. She had heard stories of Satellite before, but for all the notice she'd taken of them, they might as well have been talking about the far side of the moon. Other people went there, but no one she would ever meet would have anything to do with it. It was hard for a girl born to wealth and privilege to even imagine how someone would live in a place like this. What did they do for food, for light, for clean water? What did they do when it rained, or when the weather turned cold?

_This is where Yusei grew up. How can he be so generous when he had so little?_

The further from shore they drove, the worse the destruction became. The clouds overhead became thicker and darker, until they were forced to turn on their headlights just to be able to see where they were going. There wasn't even as much lightning as there had been before; it all seemed to be congregating over the center of the island, leaving the rest of the world in darkness, as though all the other available light had been caught up by it. There was little conversation. What could they discuss, besides the one thing they were trying hardest not to think about?

At length, they came to what looked like it had once been an old parking garage. It had withstood the passage of time fairly well - some of its decks were crumbling in spots, but overall, it seemed to be sound. There were a few hulks of vandalized cars, their useful parts long since stripped out and carried away. Other than that, there didn't seem to be much sign of human presence. It seemed the inhabitants of Satellite preferred to hole up in more protected space than the wide-open garage. Mikage pulled to a stop at the front gate, and Ushio pulled up next to her.

"It should be near here," she said.

Aki looked up at the garage. "A tower should be easy to see. Perhaps if we went to the top level and looked out...?"

"That's what I was thinking," said Mikage.

"I want to help look, too!" Rua piped up.

"Easy there, kiddo," said Ushio, reaching out to snag him before he could scramble out of the jeep. "We've got our own work to do, remember?"

Rua gave him an accusing look. "Then why'd you stop?"

"It will probably go faster with help," said Aki, saving Ushio from having to answer. "We can all scout the area and tell each other if we find anything."

They scattered, some to search at ground level and some to scale the stairs to the roof. Aki was one of those who climbed. She had an urge to get a bird's-eye view of this ruined metropolis, as if seeing it all at one go would make it more real to her. She found a rusted door leading to a staircase and picked her way carefully up the concrete steps, trying not to slip on the grime that had accumulated on them over the years. The guardrail had become little more than a collection of rusted pipes and flaking paint, and parts of it had fallen away altogether.

_It would be ignominious if I ended this adventure by falling and breaking my neck before I ever got anywhere near the Dark Signers,_she thought as she climbed.

At last, she reached the top. The door there had fallen off its hinges completely, and wan light filtered down through the opening. Aki stepped carefully onto the roof, hoping the whole thing wouldn't cave in underneath her. It was windy up there, and she shivered a little as she walked. Being so high up, close to the stormy sky, made her uneasy, and it took her a moment to muster enough courage to move further out onto the roof.

It was then that she realized that she was not alone.

"Hello, Aki," said Misty. "I knew you'd turn up here eventually."

"How could you know? We didn't even know we were coming here," Aki replied.

"You knew you were searching for the tower that stands closest to here," Misty said. She smiled. "You talked a bit too freely. Every spider is a spy for us, and we overheard all your plans. Your friends will find a surprise waiting for them when they reach their destinations... those who get that far, at least."

"What do you mean?" Aki demanded.

"You brought three unprotected civilians with you," said Misty. "The only way you will get past me to the tower is to duel me and defeat my god. When one of the Earthbound Gods are summoned, all living souls in the vicinity will be gathered up as sacrifices to it. The presence of a Signer would have protected them, but you let them wander off on their own. You let them stay here and help you fight what should have been your own battle. You made the wrong choice again."

Aki clenched her fists. "I don't have to fight you."

"Did you think I was going to give you a choice?" asked Misty, her expression hardening. "No, I've waited too long for this. You aren't going to slip through my fingers again."

Aki's mind was racing. How much of what Misty was telling her was the truth? Was there still a chance to get away? If she didn't defeat her, deactivating the tower would probably be a vain gesture - Misty could simply reactivate it again. Could she really risk the world to try to keep her friends safe?

_She can't summon the god right away, or she would have done it the first time we dueled. If I can defeat her quickly, before she has a chance to get it on the field... that may be my only chance to save everyone._

"All right," she said.

* * *

Meanwhile, Rua was exploring. He was determined to be of some use on this trip, with or without the approval of the red dragon. He scrambled through the wreckage of an old car to see if there was anything interesting left in the glove compartment, discovered it was rusted shut, and bounded away again. He looked over the edge of the floor at the parking lot below, noticed Mikage and Ushio duly searching the ground, and waved to them, but they didn't see him. He made a face; what good would it do him to find anything if they were ignoring him? He turned away to see what else he could find.

"Hey, kid. Over here."

Rua jumped, looking around frantically for the source of the voice. Standing in a shadowy corner, surrounded by tattered cobwebs, was a man - the one Misty had told Rua was a co-worker. The last time Rua had seen him, he'd been wearing a black trench coat and dark glasses, instead of the almost ceremonial looking black robes he was wearing now, and there were red markings on his face that hadn't been there before, but Rua was certain it was the same man.

"You again!" he blurted. "I should have known you were one of them!"

"Never mind that," said the man brusquely. "There's no time to argue. I'm here to help, all right?"

Rua scowled. "I don't believe you."

"Why not? Because I'm one of the Dark Signers?" The man shook his head. "Listen, kid - there's more to life than just 'us' and 'them'. You think just because I'm on the opposite side, I can't have anything in common with you?"

"Um," said Rua.

"Right. Now, listen close. Misty is here - she's on the top floor, looking for that Izayoi girl. If she finds her, they'll fight to the death, and neither of us want that. You can stop it, though. Misty likes you. She'll listen to you, but she hates me. It has to be you."

"But why..."

"Look, you really don't have time to argue."

Rua swallowed what he had been going to say. It didn't matter why he was getting this tip - what mattered was the chance to help Aki before something really bad happened, and maybe help Misty as well.

"Thanks!" he said, and sprinted for the stairs.

He reached the top just as Aki was on her way down. Rua flung his arms out, blocking the passage.

"Don't go!" he said.

"Get out of my way," said Aki calmly.

Rua shook his head. "You can't! It's too dangerous!"

"It's what I came here to do."

"Rua." Misty's voice was surprisingly gentle. "I understand what you are trying to do, but it's beyond that point now."

"I won't let you fight!" said Rua. "Aki isn't the one who killed your brother! It's all a big mistake!"

"Did she tell you that? How do you know you can trust her?" asked Misty.

"It's not like that! She didn't even-"

"Enough," said Misty. "I don't want to stand here and argue all night." She turned to Aki. "You go on to the tower. You can see it from here - that spire in the empty lot. I will catch up to you when I've settled things with Rua. Don't worry. I don't think you'll have to wait long."

Aki looked at her suspiciously.

"It's okay," said Rua, trying to sound brave. "I can manage."

"Go on," said Misty. "Rua isn't a Signer. I have no reason to want to hurt him."

Aki didn't look convinced, but she reluctantly edged past Rua and made her way down the stairs, casting several looks over her shoulder as she went. Misty remained where she was, watching silently until Aki was out of sight. Once Aki was gone, Misty reached out and gathered a few shreds of fog, which curled in her hand like bits of ribbon. She clenched her fist around them, crushing them into powder, which she blew away into the air like a kiss. It blew away towards the city skyline, moving in a direction that had nothing to do with the wind.

"What did you do?" Rua asked.

"Nothing much," said Misty. "I just sent Aki someone to keep her company until I catch up to her. Someone she might be glad to see. You can't blame me for that."

Rua scowled. "You're up to something. Were you always like this, and I just didn't notice?"

"I'm sorry, Rua. This was too important to let anything get in my way," said Misty. "I did genuinely like you."

"But you... were you... you were dead the whole time!" Rua blurted.

"Yes," she said softly. "After Toby died, I... I just couldn't go on."

Rua felt a chill. For a fleeting instant, he imagined how he would feel if something took his sister away from him. Would he be able to continue his life without her?

"Misty..."

Impulsively, he flung his arms around her and hugged her. She stared at him, her expression one of pure bafflement, before she pushed him roughly away.

"Don't do that," she said. "Do you think this situation can be solved that easily?"

Rua reluctantly let go. He looked up at her questioningly, but she only shook her head.

"You don't seem to understand," she said. "I have pledged my soul to the underworld gods in exchange for my revenge. I no longer have any choice in the matter. That is why, even though it pains me, since you have cast your lot with the Signers..."

She readied her Duel Disk. Green light flared around her. Rua instinctively backed away and nearly fell back down the steps.

"We must duel," she said.

* * *

Aki walked towards the tower. It had seemed so far away when she had looked at it from the top of the garage, but her mind was working so quickly that her feet scrambled to keep up with it, and she had no choice but to follow them. Soon, she found herself standing in the shadow of the control tower. It was a villainous-looking thing, reaching towards the sky like the lightning rod in a mad scientist's lab. She half expected Misty to appear before her in a burst of light.

Instead, there was only a light breeze. It fluttered around her, sweeping her hair back from her face, caressing her cheek. Then it coalesced into a ribbon of fine black dust, which formed itself into a vaguely humanoid shape. As Aki watched, the shape began to take on clearer outlines, slowly gaining color, gradually becoming more familiar. Aki's heart began to pound. Standing before her was a middle-aged man, impeccably dressed in suit and tie, his beard neatly trimmed. He looked exactly as she remembered him, save that his face seemed a bit more lined, and his eyes had an unnatural darkness to him. A green sigil like a lizard glowed on his arm.

"Papa?" Aki whispered.

"Aki." His expression was unfathomably sad. "I'm glad... you're still all right."

"Papa, what are you doing here?" she asked. She didn't know what to think. The last time she'd seen him, he'd looked so happy - he'd been glad she was gone. She'd been nothing but an irritant that kept him from getting his work done. He had shunted her out of the house as fast as he could. So why was he looking at her so sadly?

"I'm not sure. I only remember seeing a fog..." He shook his head. "Something is moving me I don't think I can fight it..." He gasped, clutching at the mark on his arm. "You... you should go, before..."

"Why?" Aki demanded, suddenly angry. "Why are you always pushing me away?"

"I'm not... I'm just..." He gasped again, shuddering. Dark mist wrapped around him, forming a Duel Disk on his arm. A deck of cards appeared there, gleaming gently in their own greenish light. The light reflected in his eyes briefly. Aki felt something clench inside her, and rebelled against it. Hadn't she vowed she would never have anything more to do with her father? Hadn't she told herself she no longer cared about him? He had made it clear that he hadn't wanted her around, and she had complied with his wishes. That should have been the end of it. So why did it hurt her to see him like this? She turned away, closing her eyes to blot out the sight.

"I don't want you either," she said.

"No, Aki, don't go..."

Aki felt a sudden slap of cold air against her face, and she jerked backwards, opening her eyes to see that she was surrounded by a ring of green flame. She looked accusingly back at her father.

"I can't let you go," he said. "I've been sent to duel you. Nothing else is allowed. I'm sorry."

Aki gave a despairing little laugh. "You never would play when I actually wanted to duel..."

He flinched as though she had struck him. "Aki..."

"Never mind," she said. "I will duel you. Begin."

He drew a hand and glanced at it.

"I summon Lady of Faith," he said.

Aki stared. "You never had that card in your deck before..."

"This is a new deck. It was created just now, for this duel," her father answered softly. "It reflects my heart. It is my gift to you."

"Gift...?" Aki repeated.

Automatically, her hand went to her deck. It had been a gift, too, a long time ago, on the day when everything had started to go wrong. She had never played any other deck. Not even Divine had ever tried to make her use any other cards. It had never crossed her mind to wonder why she didn't change them; her father had given them to her because she'd wanted them, and she had always told herself that she kept them because they were the kind of cards she liked, but it would have been the easiest thing in the world to get them replaced with something else...

"I set one card face-down," he said. "Pay attention, Aki. This is important."

She shook her head. "I don't want to hear anything you have to say! I play Lord Poison in attack mode. Attack the Lady of Faith!"

The serpentine beast launched itself at the unfortunate maiden. She gave a squeak of pure fear before vanishing in a burst of sparks, and Aki's father winced as though the blow had fallen upon him as well.

"Yes, that's just how it was," he said.

Aki looked at him quizzically as she set a card and ended her turn. "What do you mean by that?"

He held out a hand. "Spell card - Silent Doom! Lady of Faith is returned to the field in defense mode."

"What's the point?" Aki snapped. "She's just going to get destroyed again."

"I know," her father replied. "You used to have faith in me, once. I disappointed you over and over again. I wish it was this easy to restore your faith..."

Aki felt her anger begin to waver. _This is a new deck... It is my gift to you..._What kind of duel was this?

"I play the equip card, Amulet of Ambition!" he announced. "If your monster has a higher level than mine, then for the duration of this turn, my monster receives an extra five hundred attack points for every additional level yours has. Since your Lord Poison has four stars and Lady of Faith has three, her attack raises to 1600. Now, attack Lord Poison!"

Aki flinched as her monster was destroyed. The damage to her life points was minor, but it stung to feel her father attacking her.

_I'll make you pay... I'll make you feel the pain I feel!_

"Trap card, open! Doppelganger!" she announced. "When your monster inflicts damage to me, you take the same amount!"

A blast of energy burst from the card, engulfing her father and dropping his life by a hundred points.

"I expected that," he said softly. "My other gift to you backfired on me, too."

Aki stared at him. "You mean...?"

"From my hand, I play the spell card Sad Story Sorrowful Memories," he said, and a card unfolded before him. Aki stared as the air around her began to grow dark, obscuring her vision. She looked around desperately, trying to find something she could see. A point of light began to grow in front of her, gradually expanding until she could make out... her own home. She was seeing it, but not from her own perspective. This was her home as her father saw it, and she was watching through his eyes, hearing what he heard and feeling what he felt. Right now, what he felt was... hope, the kind of hope that went hand in hand with anxiety. He wanted very much for something to go right, and feared that it would go very wrong.

"I never should have missed it," he was saying.

"Don't worry, Hideo. I'm sure she'll be fine." That was Aki's mother speaking, uncertainly, as though she really didn't believe what she was saying. "You're sure you're cleared for today?"

"Absolutely," her father replied. "It took some juggling, and I may have to work late every other night this week, but my calendar for today is completely free."

"Then there's nothing to worry about," Aki's mother replied. "There's no birthday present that could make her happier than to have the day with you."

There was a squeal of delight from somewhere upstairs. Aki's mother smiled.

"I'd say your comes in a close second, though," she said.

There was a patter of feet, and then Aki herself came racing down the stairs, hair and skirt flying, a deck of cards clutched to her heart.

"Daddy, it's perfect! It's just what I wanted! Thank you!" She flung her arms around her father's middle, hugging him so tightly that he sloshed his coffee on his newspaper. He smiled anyway and put his arms around her.

"That's for being so patient with your troublesome old man," he said.

She looked up at him, her eyes filled with hope - and also doubt.

"Will you play with me later? After work?" she asked. "You'll come home on time tonight, right?"

"Wrong," he said, "because I'm not going to work today at all. I'm taking the day off so we can spend it together. Now, let's find our Duel Disks and have a game or two."

"Okay!" said Aki. She scampered off towards her room, then stopped and doubled back to hug her father again. "I love you!"

His eyes pricked with tears, but he blinked them away and smiled.

_I'm so glad I haven't let you down this time, Aki. If only every day could be this way..._

The scene dissolved into blackness, and then the shadows lifted, leaving Aki blinking as she tried to adjust to the scenery around her. Her father was watching her impassively, as though nothing had happened. Had he even realized she had seen anything? Had any time really passed?

_Maybe I'm hallucinating,_she thought. But how else could she explain the tracks of tears on her father's face?

"When this card is active," he said, "neither of us can play any other spell cards this turn. From this point on, when we draw our cards during the draw phase, if either of us draw a monster, we must send it to the graveyard."

_No monsters?_thought Aki. She looked down at her hand, thinking hard. She had only one monster left, not even a very strong one. What was she supposed to do if it failed her?

"Turn end," said Hideo. "Aki... be very careful. I can't help but duel you, but if you lose, you will die."

"And if I win?" she asked. "Will you be free?"

He hung his had. "No. No, I won't."

Aki felt a chill settle in the pit of her stomach. He hadn't said it, but the implication was clear: if she won this duel, her father would die.

_What difference would it make? You never planned to see him again,_ said a little voice inside her, but the other half of her said, _But he's your father..._

"My turn!" she said. She mentally sent up a prayer to the gods of dueling, took a breath, and drew a card. She turned it over and felt her stomach sink. It was the Black Rose Dragon.

_My best card..._

Reluctantly, she slipped it into the graveyard.

_Don't worry about it. Make the most of what you've got._

"I summon Violet Witch," she declared. She was taking a risk, summoning her in attack mode. Her attack level was equal to that of Lady of Faith, now that the effect of Amulet of Ambition had ended. Her only hope lay in the luck of the draw. "Witch, attack Lady of Faith!"

The witch flung herself at the Lady of Faith, and the two of them vanished in a burst of dazzling light.

"When Violet Witch is destroyed," Aki continued, "I can add one plant-type monster from my deck to my hand, as long as it has a defense of 1500 or less."

Her father smiled slightly. "That's my girl."

Aki searched her deck and selected a card: the Rose Bird, the one she and Ruka had played with on the day they'd first met.

_This will be useful later,_she decided.

"I place one card face-down and end my turn," she said.

Hideo nodded and drew his next card. Evidently it wasn't a monster, because he slipped it into his hand.

"My turn. I summon the Unhappy Maiden in defense mode," he said.

In a glow of pale light, a girl appeared on the field. She was slim and pale, wearing a tattered dress, and she looked at Aki with an expression of deep sadness. Her hair was red, and she carried a basket of roses in her hands. Hideo must have seen the expression in her eyes, because he nodded.

"She looks very much you, doesn't she?" he said. "Just like that day..."

"Just like..."

Hideo removed a card from his hand. "I play the spell card Dreadful Day!"

A new card appeared on the field, and once again, Aki felt darkness closing around her. When it cleared again, she was looking at herself, in her own room. She had a Duel Disk on her arm, and she was smiling, clearly delighted to be playing the game she loved best. Even when her monsters were destroyed, she laughed and applauded her father, happy simply to be with him. Aki watched her younger self, feeling the echoes of her father's pride in her.

_He's happy,_ she realized. _If playing with me made him so happy, why didn't he do it more often?_

Her question was answered when her father's phone began to ring. She felt his stomach sinking, and heard him thinking, _Not now, please, any day but today..._

He answered the phone. "Yes, hello?"

"Izayoi, where are you?"

"I'm at home. I have today off," he said. "I put in the request weeks ago."

"Well, never mind that. We've got an important client on the way over, and we need you here to handle things."

"Can't you get someone else?"

"No, Izayoi. We need your expertise. Nobody knows their way around the accounts better than you do. If you aren't here, we might lose the deal."

"There's got to be someone..."

"Look. We need this deal. It could mean millions in extra revenue. Now, you can take the day off or you can come in, but if we lose this deal, you're out of a job. Understood?"

"I..." Worries surged through him. If he lost this job, where else would he go? How would he pay off his house, his car, Aki's schooling? He wanted so badly for Aki to have the kind of life she deserved. He wanted to do what was best for her.

"How long will this take?" he asked, resigned.

"Not long. A couple of hours, tops."

"Fine," he said. "But I'm holding you to that."

He hung up the phone and turned back to Aki, who was watching him accusingly.

"Aki, honey, there's been a little emergency," he said gently. "I need to go to work, but it will just be for a little while, okay?"

She glared at him. "You _lied_to me."

"I didn't lie to you. It's only going to be for a little while, I promise..."

"You promised the whole day!" she said, stamping her foot. "You lied to me! You lied, you lied, you _lied!_"

Heat flared out around her. Suddenly, the whole room was in flames, and Hideo felt a powerful force slam into him, pinning him to the wall, so that he was suspended several feet off the ground.

_What... what's going... how?_he thought, his head spinning from the impact. Through the flames, he could see Aki standing very still, a calm point in the midst of the chaos. A red mark was glowing on her arm.

"Daddy, what's going on?" she said. "Daddy, I'm scared, make it stop..."

"Get back," he gasped. Flames were fanning around him, making the air so hot he could hardly breathe, and he was sure that at any moment, they would engulf him. Why were the flames curving away from her as she walked through them? She had to be doing it somehow. He didn't understand how, but she was attacking him, punishing him for angering her. "Stay away from me..."

She stopped, staring at him, and the expression in her eyes went straight to his heart. She had no more idea what was going on than he did - less, perhaps. She needed his comfort and support. She needed him to put his arms around her and tell her it was all going to be all right. He knew that... but he couldn't do it. He was too terrified even to touch her, and what he was afraid of most right now was _her_.

"Stay back," he said again. "Please don't come near..."

Aki stared at him a moment longer. Suddenly, she burst into tears and fled the room, and the fire went out in her wake. Hideo slumped to the floor and lay there, immobile, pinned there by guilt and fear. If only there was something he could do...

He closed his eyes in defeat, and darkness obscured Aki's vision. She stood rooted to the spot, trying to absorb everything she had seen.

_He was a coward,_ she tried to tell herself. _He could have done something, but he was too afraid..._The other half of her was not convinced. In her child's mind, she had believed that her father was fearless, capable of doing anything. The only conclusion she could draw was that he hadn't comforted her and helped her because he hadn't wanted to, because he really didn't care enough to try. To feel his fear, his helplessness, his guilt...

_He was still wrong. No matter what he felt, he could have still tried to help. You can't forget that._

She forced herself to raise her eyes to look at her father, to not show him what she was feeling. It was hard when his expression now wasn't so very different from the way he had looked in her vision.

"When this card is activated," he said, "during both of our draw phases, if the card we draw is a trap card, we must return it to our decks."

_So that's how it's going to be,_ she thought. Already, she thought she could feel a noose tightening around her. Somewhere in that deck of his, there was bound to be a card that would bind off her spells as well, and then she would be completely defenseless. _Is this what you wanted? To take away these powers of mine and leave me with nothing?_

Something in her rebelled. She'd had enough of being told what to do and how to do it. A voice inside her that sounded a bit like Yusei's was saying to her, _Your power is yours to do what you want with._She was not going to let herself be pushed around anymore, not even by her father.

"My turn," she said.

She reached for the next card almost dreamily, as though she already knew what it would be. She glanced at it and smiled slightly. Perfect. She slipped it onto her Duel Disk.

"I play the spell card Ivy Shackle! Now every monster on your side of the field is a plant-type," she said. "Then I'll play Fragrance Storm. I can now destroy one plant-type monster on the field of my choosing and draw one card. If the monster I draw is a plant- type, I can show it to you to draw one more card."

A storm of rose petals whipped up on the field, demolishing the Unhappy Maiden, who vanished with a gasp of shock. Aki reached for her deck, eyes closed, and drew one card. She held it up: a monster card, Rose Bird. She drew again, adding another trap card to her hand.

"I play Rose Bird," she announced. "And now that your field is empty, it can attack you directly!"

The bird gave a shriek and dove, its thorny claws and sharp beak leveled at him. Aki tried to keep her expression immobile as she saw her father flinch away from the attack.

"I end my turn," she said.

"Very well," said Hideo, sighing. He straightened up slowly, moving as if in a dream the kind of nightmare where the air is so heavy that escape is impossible. "I play spell card, Sad Story - Unwavering Truth! Now you will see..."

Night fell over the field. It was a night of twinkling stars, and for a brief moment, Aki thought that somehow the game had ended and the dark fog had disappeared. Then she realized that once more, she was seeing the world through her father's eyes, and he was looking out the window at the softly lit sky.

"Do you think she's really all right out there?" he asked.

"She'll be fine," his wife assured him. "This was the best thing you could have done for her."

"I hope so," said Hideo. "She's never had so many other children around before. I don't want her to be overwhelmed."

"It will be good for her," Aki's mother repeated. "Having some friends her own age around will help her settle down."

She didn't need to say what "settle down" meant. They both knew: it meant "Maybe if she's happy - if she has something else to invest her energy in - maybe if we just wait long enough, those strange powers of hers will go away."

"Maybe you're right," he said. "I know I shouldn't worry so much, but... Well, I can't help it. And I miss her. Even if we haven't been... as close as we used to be..."

"Of course I'm right," Aki's mother assured him. She held up a bottle. "Come on, now, let's relax and enjoy ourselves. It isn't every night you have that chance, and I won't let you waste it with worrying."

He laughed. "You're right. Well, then, why not have a toast?" He filled their glasses and raised his high. "Here's to Aki, and her success at Duel Academia!"

"I'll drink to that!" Aki's mother replied.

They clinked their glasses together, laughing, and raised them to their lips to drink.

Then their glasses exploded. The wine bottle split into fragments, spilling wine like blood over the furniture and the carpet. Picture frames cracked, vases shattered, chandeliers fell to pieces, lights went black as their bulbs burst. Every piece of glass in the house, from perfume bottles to dishes to picture windows, exploded into shards. In the suddenly dark room, the street lights outside seemed unnaturally bright. In their pale light, a small figure could be seen, standing and watching the house with burning eyes. Hideo got to his feet and rushed to the window to look out at her. She stood there a moment, making certain that he'd recognized her, before melting into the night.

Gone. Hideo slumped to the glass-covered floor with a groan. His daughter was gone, probably for good. He had failed her, and maybe now he'd never get her back. The light had gone out in his world...

The image faded, but it remained in Aki's inner vision. Her father nodded, as if guessing what she was thinking.

"That is the truth, Aki. I wasn't a good father to you - I admit that. I was never around when you needed me. I let you down countless times. I gave in to my fears just when you need me most. But Aki, I want you to know that I always loved you. I always hoped I would have a chance to make up for my mistakes." He hung his head. "I'm sorry I'll never get that chance..."

"Father..." she began, but he held up his hand.

"I'm sorry," he said again. "I don't have any more time. The duel must be finished."

"No! We can stop this," she protested. "We can stop the duel, and..."

He shook his head. "I'm sorry. This is... beyond my control." He was breathing hard now, as if fighting some tremendous pressure. "Do what you have to do, Aki."

"What do you mean?"

He looked up at her, his eyes suddenly flaring green, and when he spoke, his voice had an uncanny echo to it.

"Storytime is over, little girl," he said. "Now we get serious. Trap card, open - Bad End - Sorrowful Chain! When I have one copy of each Sad Story on the field, I can special summon Bad End Queen Dragon!"

There was a roar that seemed to come from somewhere within the depths of the earth. A crack appeared, eyes glinting like a cursed treasure. Then it burst fully into view with a rush of wings and scales. Aki took a step back, shielding her face with an arm.

"When this card is on my side of the field, the effects of the Sad Story cards no longer apply to me," he continued, "and whenever the Bad End Queen Dragon inflicts damage to you, you have to send one card from your hand to the graveyard, and I get to draw a card."

Trapped. Aki realized that she had been trapped - she had no monsters strong enough to destroy the dragon, and every turn would deplete her hand, while every draw phase would serve only to send more cards straight to the graveyard. And she had been too wrapped up in his story to pay attention. Now she was defenseless.

"Now, Queen Dragon," he said, "attack her Rose Bird!"

The dragon heaved a deep breath and blasted a gust of foul air directly at her. The Rose Bird vanished with a squawk and a flurry of rose petals. The force of it was enough to send her flying, and she landed hard on the rough ground, wincing as it scraped her skin. She sat up carefully. Her sleeve was torn, and the side of her arm was dotted with flecks of blood. One knee was badly cut, and she hissed in pain as she tried to pull herself to her feet. Her father, or the thing that was controlling him, watched her impassively.

"Go on," he said.

She scowled at him and discarded one of her cards.

_I have one chance at this. If this turn goes wrong, the next one will finish me._ She took a deep breath. _I just can't let it go wrong, then._

"When Rose Bird is destroyed," she said, "I can draw two Tuner Monsters from my deck and special summon them to the field in face-up defense mode. I choose Naturia Rosewhip and Night Rose Knight!"

Rose petals fluttered again, red as blood and black as night. Two monsters appeared, staunchly facing the dragon that loomed over them.

"Next," she continued, "when I successfully summon a Plant-type Tuner monster, I can summon Dark Verdure from my graveyard!"

A third monster appeared alongside the first three, its eyes glaring balefully.

"Do you think that will save you?" her father asked. "They'll be gone in two turns at the most. You can't bluff me with those Tuner monsters. I gave you that deck, and I know as well as you do that the only Synchro monster you have is already in your graveyard."

"I've done what I needed to do," said Aki.

"Fine," he said. "I end my turn. Show me what you'll do with those poor monsters."

"I will," she said. "I play the spell card Shining Rebirth! By selecting one Synchro Monster in my graveyard and sending the appropriate synchro material monsters from my field to the grave, I can special summon that monster."

He stared, his expression one of pure consternation. "How did you... you didn't have that card before!"

"I've been through a bit," she said, "since the last time you saw me." She reached for her Disk and slipped a card from the graveyard slot. "Be reborn, Black Rose Dragon!"

The dragon appeared, flaring its petals and arching its neck proudly. Aki looked up at it, feeling a sense of reassurance steal over her.

_I will win, with this card, the card my father gave me... because he loves me._

"Once per turn," she said, "by removing from play one plant-type monster in my graveyard, I can reduce your monster's attack to zero. Your Bad End Queen Dragon's power is gone. Now, Black Rose Dragon, attack!"

Her father shouted something, but it was drowned out by the roar of the Black Rose Dragon as it rushed towards him. His monster was enveloped in a blast of energy, bursting into fragments that faded into nothingness. Hideo was thrown off his feet and went rolling across the bare earth. The ring of green flames around the duel field vanished. Aki raced over to her father's side, and he painfully levered himself up onto his hands and knees, raising tired eyes to look up at her. They were brown, just as they had always been.

"Aki," he whispered.

"It's all right," she said, putting her arms around him. "Just... just hold on..."

He shook his head slightly. "Be brave, Aki. There's worse coming. I... I know you'll make me proud."

"Don't go," she said. "Please, we only just..."

"I'm sorry," he said. He reached up a hand to touch her cheek. "I love you, Aki."

"I know," Aki whispered.

He closed his eyes and gave a long sigh. Then he gave a slight shiver and suddenly melted into fine black dust. Aki knelt where she was for a long while, watching it blow away in the wind until there was nothing left. Only when even her imagination could not convince her that she could see it anymore did she slowly get to her feet and walk away.

**To Be Continued...**


	26. Ruka Saves the Fish

**_Note:_**I would like to take this opportunity to thank Gin no Ryuu for pointing out errors in the previous chapter, and for kindly looking over this chapter for me. I would also like to note that cards are being played by their anime effects, which in some cases may be different from their real-world effects.

**Ruka Saves the Fish**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Demak smirked as he watched Rua disappear up the stairs. It amazed him how easily people's emotions could be manipulated. Everyone was doing exactly what he wanted them to do, all because he'd appealed to their emotions. With any luck, Rua would finish Misty off, but even if he didn't, he would delay her long enough to make her miss her chance. The replacement she'd sent to deal with Aki might very well finish her off, but that couldn't be as satisfying as killing her rival herself. If the replacement couldn't do it... well, Demak knew what would come next, even if Misty didn't. By the time she was done dueling, her rival would be dead and she would still be alive, and she would be denied her revenge forever.

_Which is just what she deserves for getting in my way,_he told himself.

There was a click of footsteps, the sound made by someone wearing expensive shoes and walked with the confidence that he deserved to have them. Demak looked up to see Divine approaching him.

"Well?" he asked. "How did it go?"

"He took the bait," said Demak. "Hook, line, and sinker. The girl is all yours, if you can catch her before that remnant does."

"Thank you," said Divine. "You're a fine young man. If the circumstances differed, I might have been able to do more business with you."

Demak bristled slightly at Divine's tone. What made the smug bastard think Demak would have wanted to do business with him? What did he have that Demak would have wanted? Immediately, he answered his own question: money, power, and the ability to summon forth living monsters with nothing more than an effort of will. On consideration, Demak thought he probably would have sold out for a package like that. Maybe in the future, when all of this fighting was over... well, it would probably take some time to get the world reorganized properly, and having an ally or two never hurt.

"I'll keep it in mind," said Demak. "Especially if you finish off that girl before Misty gets to her."

"So many people seem to want me to do that lately," said Divine. "It must be Fate. A shame - she was such a nice girl."

Demak laughed. "But not nice enough that you wouldn't stoop to killing her?"

"Of course not. One must keep one's priorities straight," he replied. He turned to go. "Pleasure doing business with you, but I have an appointment. Take care of yourself. Try not to do anything foolish."

"Yeah, sure," said Demak.

He tossed off a mocking salute and marched off in the other direction. He had an appointment to keep, too.

Meanwhile, Ruka had yet to find anything that looked like a control tower. Nevertheless, she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something nearby. Her dragon's birthmark tingled, and she rubbed at it as she walked. She scrambled up a heap of broken rubble to get a better view, though it was difficult to see any distance through the creeping fog.

_I'm getting too far from the garage,_ she realized. _I should probably turn back..._

"Kuri?"

Ruka jumped and nearly slid off the ridge.

"Don't sneak up on me like that!" she scolded.

Kuribon cooed at her apologetically, but there was really nothing else she could do. It was hard for a spirit to make noise as she approached.

"What do you think?" Ruka asked her. "Which way should we go?"

Kuribon chattered at her. Ruka listened, frowning slightly. The little monster was clearly agitated about something, but it was hard enough to understand her even when she wasn't rambling on as fast as she could squeak. Ruka was still trying to puzzle out what the problem was when Kuribon gave a sudden yelp and dove for cover. At the same time, Ruka became aware of footsteps behind her.

There was a man walking towards her, moving slowly, as though he had all the time in the world. He wore a long black cloak that flapped around him as he moved, making him seem to be part of the fog. His eyes were fixed steadily on her in a way that made her spine crawl. She started looking around for an escape route.

"Don't even bother," he said. "I can find you again wherever you go."

As proof, he pushed up his sleeve, showing the glowing yellow mark of a monkey on his arm. Ruka felt her own mark throb in response. She clutched a hand over it, as though she could hide it that way. He only laughed.

"Stand and face me," he said. "Show me some courage."

Ruka bit her lip, wishing desperately that the others were here to give her some moral support. She wondered if they would realize what had happened to her when she didn't come back right away. She tried not to think about the possibility that she wouldn't come back at all.

_This is what I came here to do. I won't lose._

Her resolve must have shown on her face, because the dark man laughed.

"That's what I like to see," he said. "Come down here. I have an old score to settle with you."

"Me?" she repeated. "I never did anything to you!"

"Oh, is that so? Then take a closer look at this!"

The man reached under his cloak and withdrew a single card. Even in the dark, its pale borders gleamed, and Ruka felt her breath catch in her throat.

"That's the Ancient Fairy Dragon!" she exclaimed. "Give that back!"

"Why should I? She's not yours," said the man. "You never owned this card. I earned it myself. If you want it back, you'll have to duel me for it."

Ruka walked very slowly down from the ridge. She stopped a few paces away, looking up at him defiantly.

"You might have that card," she said, "but that doesn't make her yours."

It was the wrong thing to say. The man's face twisted into a snarl.

"She _is_ mine!" he snapped. "All my monsters are mine. I _earned_ them. I've worked my whole life to collect them. The only reason she won't talk to me is because of _you_."

Ruka flinched. No matter how wild he sounded, she couldn't escape the feeling that his hatred towards her was very real.

"If I can," she said, "I'll ask her to speak to you. But you have to set her free first."

"Nice try," said the man. "I'm not giving her back to you. Not unless you pry her from my cold, dead hands."

Ruka bowed her head. "I don't want to do it... but if I have to... then we'll duel!"

"That's more like it," he said. "But first, I want a change of scenery!" He held his hand to the sky, the mark on his arm glowing like a golden sun. "Master Cusillu, hear me! Accept this offering I bring to you, and open the way to the distant world!"

In response, there was a stirring somewhere deep beneath the earth, a trembling that made Ruka fall to her hands and knees, but Demak stood still as though he'd been turned to stone. Light seemed to be shining through cracks in the ground, growing brighter and brighter, dazzling her eyes. Somewhere beyond the tumult, she thought she heard Demak laugh, and then there was a mighty rush of wind that seemed to come from the earth itself. Ruka found herself being lifted into the air, engulfed by the light...

Then there was earth under her feet again, and she blinked, trying to clear the spots from her vision. She seemed to be standing on a weedy patch of ground, near a dry riverbed. A cluster of trees stood in the distance, their leaves brown and lifeless.

_This is where I was before,_ she realized. A wave of sadness washed over her. She had spent so many happy hours playing here, and to see it reduced to this...

"We're not here for sightseeing, girl."

The voice snapped Ruka back to the present. She turned to glare at the man who had dragged her here. He was going to pay for this. She didn't know how yet, but she would find a way to make things right. She slotted her deck into her Duel Disk and listened to the machine hum to life. On the other side of the field, her opponent did likewise. Her heart was pounding so hard that she was sure he could hear it from where he stood, but having her cards at the ready dispelled some of her fear. She wasn't alone. She had a whole deck full of friends.

"My turn first! I summon Regulus!" she declared.

The white lion appeared before her, turning his shaggy head to look at her.

"Ruka, be cautious," he said. "This is Demak. He is the one who brought the blight to the world of monsters."

"Don't worry," she said. "We'll get through this together."

"My turn," said Demak. "I summon Magician's Ape!"

A ripple ran through the world, like a cold breeze, stirring up the dust and making the leaves on the trees whisper ominously. The flat sky overhead began to warp and twist in on itself, forming a spiral, and through the eye of the storm came a... what? It couldn't possibly be what Ruka thought it was, but she couldn't think of any other possibilities: a beating heart, black as night and surrounded by a sickly yellow glow. It filled the world with its strange pallor, like a ghastly sun.

"What _is_that?" she exclaimed, recoiling.

"That is the heart of my god, the mighty lord Cusillu," said Demak. "For now, he sleeps. As we duel, instead of being destroyed, defeated monsters will be sent to him, to give him the strength to rise. You should thank me for making your monsters immortal!"

Before Ruka could react to that news, there was a commotion in the forest. An ape, perhaps drawn by the appearance of the lights in the sky, was rushing down the hill towards them.

"That's him!" it exclaimed. "Regulus, the Ancient Fairy Dragon's guardian! You won't escape now, beast!"

The ape rushed forward, apparently taking no notice of Rua or Demak. Demak ignored it.

"Once per turn," he said, "the Magican's Ape can take control of one of my opponent's monsters. That includes your Regulus."

"No!" Ruka exclaimed, but it was too late.

The Magician's Ape brandished his staff at Regulus. The lion gave a roar and attempted to dodge, but a beam of white light shot from the staff and engulfed him before he could even begin to turn. He froze in place for a moment, then gradually relaxed. He seemed unharmed, but there was a strange gleam in his eyes that hadn't been there before. He walked docilely across the field to stand next to the Ape, who grinned and stroked his mane possessively.

"Give him back!" said Ruka, shaking with anger.

"Oh, he will, in a minute," said Demak. "Regulus, Magician's Ape - attack her directly!"

Now it was Ruka's turn to try to avoid attack. She turned to run, but Regulus was faster. He knocked her off her feet with a swipe of his heavy paw, and she screamed as she felt his claws rake her side. Then he leapt away, and the Magician's Ape raised his wand to blast her with a burst of energy that shot through her like a bolt of lightning. She shook with the impact, and then lay there, too stunned to move, feeling as though she'd been cooked from the inside. Her side didn't show any signs of injury, but the pain left by Regulus's claws was so real that she had to touch herself to be sure she wasn't bleeding.

"You don't have much fight in you, do you?" Demak scoffed. "You don't deserve the Ancient Fairy Dragon."

He turned and began walking away. Ruka lay in the dust, aching in every nerve, her eyes burning like two coals. With a great effort, she managed to turn onto her side and watch as Demak strode into the forest, following Regulus and the Magician's Ape.

_I can't let him get away..._

Ruka tried to push herself up, but her trembling muscles wouldn't hold her weight, and she collapsed again. Her eyes burned, too hot and dry even to shed tears.

She didn't know how long she lay there, trying to muster the strength to continue, before she felt something nudge her shoulder. She wondered - hopefully, fleetingly - if one of her own monsters had come to her aid. She wondered if something horrible had wandered out of the landscape to eat her, and wished she had the energy to roll over and find out.

The thing nudged her again, and she realized it was trying to get its snout under her arm. Ruka managed to raise it a bit, just enough that she could reach around the creature's neck. She felt smooth scales under her hand, and mustered up enough energy to ponder what sort of beast had found her. A dragon? Some sort of lizard?

With the mysterious creature's help, Ruka managed to climb to her feet again, still balanced heavily on her new friend.

"Thanks," she said, when she'd finally gotten her balance.

Then she looked down to see what had come to her rescue. Sitting next to her, apparently unconcerned by the total lack of water in the general vicinity, was a fish. It was nearly as big as she was, with an underslung jaw and two large pointed tusks. Its most striking quality, though, was its scales, which gleamed in every color of the rainbow, shimmering in jewel tones even in the weak yellow light.

"You're a Seven Colored Fish, aren't you?" she asked.

The fish nodded and made a gurgling noise at her.

"I'm Ruka. Thanks for helping me," she said. "What are you doing way out here? This isn't a good place for fish."

The fish gurgled again, staring longingly off in the direction that Demak had gone.

"Are you looking for him too?" Ruka asked.

Enthusiastic nodding.

"Do you want to come with me?"

More nodding.

"Good. I need help," she admitted.

The fish gave an agreeable burble, and with Ruka leaning on his back, the two of them started into the forest. It was cooler there, and the trees blocked out some of the sickly yellow light. The air felt dead and musty, like an old basement that had been locked up for years, but Ruka felt better once she'd crossed into it anyway. That was good, because walking while leaning on the Seven Colored Fish was a bit of an ordeal; he moved more like an inchworm than a fish, squirming himself into an arch before flinging himself forward, dragging Ruka along with him or forcing her to scramble after him. The only sounds in the forest were the light patter of Ruka's sneakers and the determined gallumphing of a fish out of water.

Then there was a shadow up ahead. Dark as he was against the gloom of the forest, Ruka saw him before she even registered Regulus's pale form or the eager scurrying of the Magician's Ape. They were natives, no more out of place than the leaves on the trees, but Demak was a foreign invader. Ruka would have noticed him if he'd been invisible.

"Stay here," she told the Fish. "This isn't safe."

The Fish looked imploringly at her, but obediently settled down in the shelter of a prickly bush. Ruka gave him a reassuring pat before hurrying to catch up with Demak.

"It's still my turn!" she shouted. "I play Swords of Revealing Light!"

There was a thunderclap. Lights lanced down from the sky, piercing the earth and forming a fence around Demak and his monsters. He turned to glare at her.

"You again! I thought I'd left you behind."

"I'm not done dueling," she said, "and you're not going anywhere until I've finished!"

"Fine," he said. "If you won't give up and die, I suppose I'll have to finish killing you."

Ruka quickly checked her cards. She had nothing in her hand that would be strong enough to combat Regulus. She wasn't sure she had the confidence to attack him. In an ordinary duel, she always knew that even if one of her monsters was destroyed, it would always be there for her the next time she played the card. Here, though...

"I play Spirit of the Breeze," she said. "For every turn this monster remains in attack mode on the field, I gain one thousand life points."

Demak laughed. "So that's your plan - you're going to keep me imprisoned while you restore your life points, is that it? I'll take them all anyway as soon as I'm free. You're just delaying the inevitable."

"I end my turn," she said.

"Not going to attack?" he asked. "Worried about hurting your cowardly lion? I'll fix that for you. I sacrifice Regulus and Magician's Ape to summon Fighter's Ape!"

"No!" Ruka shouted. She took a step forward, as though she could hold Regulus back, but she couldn't even pass the wall of swords. Regulus and the Magician's Ape vanished, replaced by a hulking gorilla in armor.

"Don't worry," Demak told her. "He's only gone to be with the gods. You'll get him back, if you defeat me."

Ruka bit her lip, staring at the Fighter's Ape, which was looking at her with an expression that said it would gladly pull her to pieces if only those swords weren't in the way. There weren't many monsters in her deck strong enough to counter it. She was going to have to be lucky.

"My turn," she said. She drew her card - Mischief of Oberon. That wasn't going to help right now. "I play Fairy Archer. You take four hundred points of damage for every Light-type monster on the field!"

The archer quickly notched an arrow and fired it straight at Demak. Hemmed in by swords as he was, he had no room to dodge, and the arrow pierced deeply into his chest before vanishing. He gasped, staggering backwards to brace himself against the barrier of light.

"You'll pay for that," he snarled. "I summon the Magician's Ape! Let's see how you like it when your archer is pointing at you!"

There was a shimmer as the Ape reappeared, brandishing his wand. The Fairy Archer gave a squeak as she vanished and reappeared on the other side of the field.

"Since I can't attack yet," he said, "I set two cards facedown and end my turn."

Ruka reached for her deck. In one more round, the Swords of Revealing Light would be gone, and then she had better be ready to fight back.

_Please, give me something good!_ she begged, and drew.

"All right!" she said. "I sacrifice Spirit of the Breeze to summon Fairy King Oberon!"

There was a rustle in the forest. A warm, flower-scented breeze blew by. Out of the shadows strode a golden-haired man, elaborately robed and carrying a staff of golden leaves. He strode up to Ruka's side and regarded her solemnly.

"Did you call for my assistance?" he asked.

Ruka nodded, a little awestruck.

"I need help with him," she said, pointing at Demak.

Oberon frowned. "Ah, yes. I know this one - the one who has captured the Ancient Fairy Dragon. What would you have me do, fair maiden? I am yours to command."

Ruka thought hard. The biggest threat right now was the Fighter's Ape, but his attack points were comfortably below Oberon's. The Fighter's Ape was far weaker, but his effect could instantly bring Oberon over to Demak's side in an instant, and Ruka would be without defense.

"Attack the Magician's Ape," she said.

Oberon nodded and raised his staff, and the blue gem on its tip began to glow. Moving with surprising speed, he bounded forwards like a running deer and slashed his staff straight through the Magician's Ape, rending it in half. It didn't even have a chance to shriek before it disappeared. His task finished, Oberon retreated gracefully to Ruka's side.

"Will that be all?" he asked.

"For now," she said. "Thanks."

"My pleasure," he answered courteously.

"My turn," said Demak. He drew a card and nodded approvingly. "I summon the Dark Tuner monster Dark Ape! Then I use my Trap Card Dark Wave to change Fighter's Ape's level to negative five."

"Negative?" Ruka repeated. "What kind of..."

"Then I tune Dark Ape to Fighter's Ape! Dark Ape's level is subtracted from Fighter's Ape, so I can summon a monster with a level of negative seven. Come forth, Demonic Monkey King Zeman!"

A tiny green monkey came loping out of the forest. It paused a moment, sizing up the situation, and rapidly conferred with the Fighter's Ape. The two of them raced off together into the shadows. A moment later, there was a blare of trumpets, and a small army of monkeys came trooping into view, escorting a sour-faced chimp in flowing robes. His expression grew even more sour when his gaze fell on the Fairy King, and he bared his teeth, showing long fangs.

"Oberon, what are you doing here, trespassing in my forest?" he growled. "I am king here! Only I!"

"I have come to the aid of this young lady," said Oberon. "I have no quarrel with you, unless you attempt to harm her."

"Both of you are trespassers! And you're interrupting our sacred ceremony," said Zeman. "Both of you will be destroyed!"

"Don't worry, Ruka," said Oberon, spreading his cloak in front of her. "I'll protect you."

Ruka nodded, not believing. She could see the lines of worry on Oberon's face. Her Duel Disk's display said that the Monkey King's attack power was higher than Oberon's, and he seemed to know it, too.

_I don't want you to die for me,_ Ruka wanted to say, but her throat was closed.

"Turn end," said Demak.

The swords vanished, taking their light with them, and the forest fell into darkness. Had it been so dark before? It was like night now, a night full of beady monkeys' eyes that glinted in the light of Oberon's wand.

"Oberon, protect me!" said Ruka.

The Fairy King moved into defense mode, head bowed and staff crossed over his chest.

_I'll make this up to you,_ Ruka thought, as she set a few facedown cards. _I'll win this, wait and see!_

"My turn," said Demak. "Zeman, attack the Fairy King!"

Zeman gave a cackle.

"There can only be one king in this forest, and that's me!" he said. "Die, Oberon!"

He hurled a fireball at Oberon, and Ruka flinched away from its heat, but Oberon stood motionless in front of her until the fire engulfed him, and he faded away like a dry leaf in a flame.

"Now, let's not dawdle any longer," said Zeman. "The ceremony must begin! Come!"

He swept away, followed by his entourage, and by Demak, who glided along behind them without looking back. Ruka stood rooted to the spot for a moment, still stunned by the loss of the Fairy King. She might have stood there forever if she hadn't felt cool scales press against her leg, and looked down to see the Seven Colored Fish bumping against her. When it realized it had her attention, it gave her another push, harder this time, and she began walking. The Fish had a sense of urgency about it now, scrambling forwards and back, occasionally pushing her from behind to make her walk faster.

The forest began to thin, and the earth became rockier and began to incline. It wasn't long before Ruka realized that she was following a trail up the side of a mountain. It cut into the slope, with walls of rock rising up on either side, blocking out the view, leaving Ruka feeling trapped. Soon, though, the way widened and became a flight of stone stairs, cut into the living rock. Ruka climbed until her legs ached, pausing once or twice to catch her breath. Where the sun should have been, there was only the black heart, and Ruka had to fight the feeling that she was climbing up to meet it.

At the top of the hill, there was a ring of stone columns, with an arch over the stairs leading up to it. A number of dark shapes were marching up to it.

"Help me out, Fish," she said. "We've got to catch them!"

The Fish nodded. Then it lunged between her legs and scooped her up on its back. She found herself scrambling for a handhold on its slick scales. She finally managed to lean forward and grip the Fish's protruding tusks like a pair of handlebars, and she clung to them as the Fish slithered its way up the stairs, pitching her back and forth as it went. Slippery as he was, it required all her concentration to keep her from sliding over his side and being dragged up the steps. He did, however, make good time. Within a few minutes, he was easing to a halt near the top of the steps, and Ruka gratefully climbed off his back. Demak and the apes were already gathered within the circle of stones, their attention fixed on the center of the ring. The black heart hovered above it, pulsing slowly, giving off a muffled _boom_with each beat. Zeman's followers were chanting in time with the beats.

_Whatever they're doing, I'll bet it's not good,_ she thought.

She was going to need backup for this. She thought of asking the Fish to help her, but his attack wasn't enough to let him take on Zeman. But she knew someone else who might be able to help her. She drew her next card.

"I activate the spell card Emergency Aid, and use it to return Fairy King to life!" she said.

A shaft of sunlight pierced the thick clouds, touching the stone at Ruka's feet. It materialized into the form of Oberon. He smiled at her.

"I knew you wouldn't let me down," he said.

She nodded. "But I still need your help. Here." She took the card she'd just drawn and slipped it into her Disk. "I play Horn of the Unicorn!"

Oberon's staff shimmered, its end extending and becoming a spiraling, pointed horn. He gave the staff a twirl, watching approvingly as it left a streak of light shimmering in the air a moment or two after it had passed.

"I think we should disrupt their ceremony," he said.

"I think you're right," she said.

The chanting was rising to a crescendo, voices echoing over the stony peak. The throbbing of the black heart was almost deafening. No one paid any attention to Ruka and her companion as they tiptoed through the arch. They did, however, notice when Oberon suddenly leapt into the center of the circle. He spun in place, battering apes aside with his staff as they tried to converge on him. Zeman gave a bellow of outrage and began shouting orders to his troops, but before any of them could react, Oberon had lunged at the king and speared him on the end of his staff. Zeman had time for one last outraged gasp before he broke up into a cluster of lights, which were drawn up into the beating heart.

Demak looked around until his gaze fell on Ruka. She was standing beneath the arched entryway, watching him defiantly.

"Why are you so determined?" he demanded. "All my life, I've never had anything that someone else didn't want to take from me! Why can't I have what I want, for once?"

Ruka regarded him thoughtfully. "What else have you lost?"

"Everything!" he replied. "I never had anything of my own! Nothing but my cards... and now I don't even have them anymore."

"What happened to them?" asked Ruka, taking a step closer. "Did someone steal them?"

"No," said Demak. "They just stopped speaking to me."

"And you don't know why?"

"They stopped speaking to me after I took the Ancient Fairy Dragon," he said. "And she won't speak to me, either! She only wants to talk to you. If I can't have her, you can't have her either!"

He looked so furious that Ruka found herself wanting to back away from him, but she was already standing on the edge of the top step; there was nowhere to go but down.

"Why did you take her?" she asked instead.

His expression shifted, the anger draining away, changing to a look of pure longing.

"She was beautiful," he said simply.

"You could still let her go," said Ruka. "She's no good to you this way. Set her free so everyone can enjoy seeing her."

"No," he snapped. "She belongs to me. I _died_for her. I died because someone tried to take her away from me, and I won't let that happen again. It's my turn! I activate the trap card Dark Matter! Because Demonic Monkey King Zeman was destroyed this turn, I can draw two monster cards from my deck and set them on the field. Then I play the field spell Closer Forest!"

The earth shook. Trees erupted from the ground, springing up fully formed with branches flaring out and scattering the pillars of stone as though they were no more than reeds. Ruka was flung off her feet, and she lay there, curled in a ball, while she waited for the tumult to settle. Apes scattered in all directions, fleeing in panic, but two of them crashed into each other and fell to the ground, stunned senseless. Demak laughed and raised his hands to the sky.

"My offering is complete," he said. "Come to me now, god of death! I summon you, Cusillu!"

The heartbeat became louder. It wasn't just glowing, now - its vague aura had become a column of light that was growing brighter by the second, so bright that the black heart could no longer be seen inside it. It was a light that had a physical presence. It cut through the clouds and stabbed the earth, sending cracks through the mountaintop.

Then a hand reached through the earth. Something was climbing out.

Demak stood and watched the god, and Ruka watched Demak. His expression was fixed, his mouth hanging slightly open, and Ruka had a sudden intuition that he wasn't actually there anymore. Cusillu was there, towering above the trees and taking in the world around him with beady monkey eyes, but he was also in Demak, and the man himself had been cast aside as irrelevant. A small part of Ruka wondered if she could make this problem go away by getting him back. The greater part of her was concerned with how she was going to get herself out of this in one piece.

_How do you get rid of a god?_

"Welcome, my lord," said Demak. "I've brought you an offering."

Cusillu seemed to understand. He looked at Ruka, baring his teeth, and ponderously reached out a hand for her. Oberon tried to block his path, but he was swatted aside. Demak laughed.

"Do you think your monsters can protect you now?" he asked. "The gods are too powerful for that. No matter what monster you summon, he'll reach past it as though they weren't even there. Your traps and spells can't touch him. Your monsters can't attack him. Face it - you've lost."

Cusillu's hand came down on her, ready to crush her like a louse, and... stopped. A bubble of pinkish light surrounded her, repelling the god's touch. He shrieked with frustration, and Demak snarled.

"What are you doing?" he demanded. "How are you doing that?"

Ruka held up a card. "When Kuribon is in my hand, I can negate all damage from a direct attack and special summon her to the field. My monsters _can_ protect me."

"Hmph," said Demak. "You can only do that trick once."

He was right. She couldn't attack him even if she had a monster strong enough. She couldn't defend herself against him. She wasn't even sure what the full extent of his power was.

She wasn't sure...

Demak kept talking: "Once you're out of the way, this whole world will belong to me. Let the others have the human world - I don't care. It's a filthy place. Gray buildings and garbage and pollution... you can have it! This is what I want."

This world. He had played a field spell a moment ago. Why had he done that? There must have been some reason he had put it there, and that was as good a reason as any to get rid of it.

"My turn!" she said. "I use the trap card Fairy Wind! Every face-up spell and trap card on the field besides this one is destroyed, and we both take four hundred points of damage for each card destroyed!"

"What? No!" Demak exclaimed.

The card vanished. A wind blew through the trees, making them tremble, and leaves swirled and blew away like a flock of frightened birds. Ruka tried to shield herself with her arms as branches and shreds of bark rained down on her head. All around her, trees crumbled into splinters. For a few moments, she could see nothing in front of her but clouds of wood dust. As the cloud began to clear, she saw Demak ahead of her, shielding his face with the edge of his cloak. Cusillu was looking around as if wondering where all the trees had gone. He seemed diminished. The light around him was dimmed.

"Look what you've done," Demak snarled. "Without that field spell..." And then he stopped short, looking annoyed. Ruka felt a flicker of hope. Maybe she had done something right.

"Look at what _you've_ done," she told him. "Look around! Is this the world you wanted?"

"What are you..." Demak began.

Ruka simply waved a hand at the horizon. The trees had destroyed the walls of the temple, and from the peak of the mountain, the landscape was visible for miles. It was a landscape of brown trees, dead grass, and gray stone under a gray sky, a world of dust and ashes. Demak's face fell into an expression of incomprehension.

"This... isn't how it was," he said. "It's not supposed to be like this."

"It wasn't like this before," she said. "Not until you started changing things. It turned like this because you were trying to force it to do what you wanted it to. This world is dying because you're keeping it prisoner."

Demak shook his head in denial. "It can't... I wouldn't..."

Ruka's monsters nodded solemnly at him. He took a few steps away from them and their accusing gazes. As he did so, he bumped into something, and looked down to see the Seven Colored Fish looking up at him. Against the gray stone, his colors shone more brightly than ever.

"Fish?" he said.

The Fish burbled at him and nudged its head against his chest.

"What? I don't... I can't understand..."

He stared at the fish, strain etched on his face as he struggled to make out what he was hearing. The Fish continued to chatter to him, but Demak only shook his head. Ruka watched, wondering what to do. On one hand, this was her enemy, and she had to destroy him for the good of the world. But the expression on his face was swiftly leaving confused and approaching raw panic.

"He... he says..."

Ruka trailed off as she realized that Demak was glaring at her; she was obviously intruding where she wasn't wanted. She took a breath and continued, "He says that humans can only hear the voices of the cards they really care about. He says you... you started collecting cards..." She faltered, uncertain her translation was correct.

"What of it?" Demak snapped.

Ruka listened a moment. "He says you started to forget the cards were alive, and just treated them like things you had to collect, not something you could talk to."

"It wasn't like that," Demak said. "They were... my treasures."

"But not your friends," said Ruka quietly.

There was a shriek. Cusillu was apparently tired of the conversation, and reached down with a huge paw to bat the Fish out of the way. The Fish crouched in front of Demak, showing its tusks and growling.

"Stop that!" Demak shouted, though it was unclear whether he was talking to the Fish, or Cusillu, or both. He turned desperately to Ruka. "Do something!"

"What?"

"Anything! Just don't let him touch my Fish!"

Ruka nodded. "Kuribon!"

Kuribon chirruped and dove between the Fish and Cusillu and braced herself for impact. The dark god's hand struck her, and she vanished in a burst of light, but the light stayed on the field, surrounding and protecting Ruka, Demak, and the Seven Colored Fish. Cusillu backed away with a hiss.

"I use Kuribon's special effect!" she declared. "When one of my opponent's monsters attacks her, I can reduce the battle damage to zero, and increase my opponent's life points by the attack points of the attacking monster!"

Demak stared at her. "Why would you...?"

"I'm not done," she said. "Trap card - Mischief of Oberon! When my opponent's life points are increased, that effect is negated, and both of us lose that number of points instead." She met his eyes. "I'm sorry. This is the only way."

The trap exploded. Demak screamed, and high above him, Cusillu gave an unearthly howl, fists raised to the sky. Ruka covered her ears to try to block it out, but it was no good. The scream went on for what seemed like days, longer than anything living should have made. Then the ape god began to crumble into dust, grains finer than ash that blew away on the wind. Then there was silence. Demak swayed gently for a moment, then sank to his knees with a groan. The Fish hurried to his side and nudged his shoulder worriedly. Demak looked up at it and gave a tired smile.

"Don't worry. I'm fine," he said. "Just give me a moment to rest..."

Then he, too, was gone.

Ruka didn't move. She knew she should have been jubilant - she had defeated one of the Dark Signers, without any of the others to help. The evil god was gone. The world of monsters was safe. But still...

A breath of wind blew over the mountain, warm air scented with flowers. Ruka looked up and saw the clouds shredding and fading away, leaving clear blue sky behind them. She shaded her eyes, trying to focus on a half-seen shape that was drifting steadily closer. She could see it flickering in and out of view, never more than a blur of motion and a flash of color. It fanned its wings, and the last of the clouds faded, and suddenly the world was filled with sunshine.

"Ancient Fairy Dragon," she whispered.

The dragon drifted slowly down from the sky, gently as a milkweed puff, to curl herself on the shattered stone of the mountaintop.

"Ruka," she said. "You've done well."

"Is everything all right now?" Ruka asked.

The dragon nodded slowly. "The monsters who were destroyed during the battle have already returned. Life is beginning to return to the land. By tomorrow, all will be as it was before. Unless..."

Ruka didn't want to hear the end of that sentence; she could guess without being told what it would be.

"What about that man, Demak?" she asked. "I... killed him, didn't I?"

"He was already dead," Ancient Fairy Dragon corrected gently. "He died years ago, killed by someone who coveted his cards."

"Is that what he meant when he said he died for you?"

The dragon nodded. "Yes. He could not accept that anyone but him might possess my card." She bowed her head. "He said the card was the most beautiful thing he had ever owned, and no one would be allowed to take it from him. In his mind, everyone was a potential thief, waiting to take something from him."

"That's sad," said Ruka. "I wish there had been some way to help him..."

"You have freed him from the dark god. That was enough," said the dragon. She turned and looked at the sky. "But you have others who need you now, as well. You should go. There is still much else to be done."

"But you'll be with me, right?" Ruka asked.

The dragon smiled. "Of course I will, and Regulus, too. We will help as much as we can."

Oberon touched her shoulder. "Good luck, fair maiden. It was an honor to fight by your side."

The Seven Colored Fish slithered over to Ruka's side and nuzzled her hand gently, as if to tell her that it didn't blame her for what had happened. She found that she couldn't look it in the eye.

"Thank you, everyone," she said.

"Brace yourself," said the Dragon.

That was all the warning she got. The Ancient Fairy Dragon spread her wings, and light flared from them, glowing in every color like a stained glass window. Ruka was dazzled by the lights; just seeing them made her spirits lift. Then she realized that she _was_lifting, rising gently up off the ground, which she could no longer see because there were so many lights...

Then she felt gravity seize her again, and she dropped heavily onto the earth, staggering a bit as she tried to recover her balance. Lights were still dancing in front of her eyes, but she could tell that she was no longer on the well-lit mountaintop. She blinked rapidly until the ragged edges of the Satellite skyline resolved themselves in front of her. It took her a moment to realize that she was back where she had started; she felt she had been traveling for miles. But there was the heap of junk she had scrambled down... and there in front of her was a heap of black dust where Demak once had been. She could see something glittery mixed in with the ashes. A breeze swept by, carrying them off into the night, leaving only a single card lying on the ground. Ruka knelt to pick it up.

"Ancient Fairy Dragon," she said softly, slipping the card into her deck. "Don't worry. I won't let you get lost again."

As she began to straighten up again, she heard the sound of heavy footfalls echoing around her, and she tensed, expecting more trouble. It wasn't trouble, though - it was Ushio, with Mikage following close behind him.

"There you are!" she said. "We were worried."

"There was all this bright light," Ushio elaborated, waving a hand vaguely.

"I'm okay," Ruka said. "I was dueling."

"Dueling?" Mikage repeated, looking alarmed. "You mean with one of..."

"A Dark Signer. Yes," said Ruka calmly. "And look - I got my card back."

Ushio was staring at her. "You beat one of those crazy dead people all by yourself?"

"I wasn't by myself," said Ruka. "There was Kuribon and the Fairy King and the Fish... I'm tired. Can I sit down?"

Even as she finished speaking, her knees gave way. It had been a very long day already, and now that the adrenaline rush was fading, she was losing strength fast. Ushio scooped her up before she could hit the ground. Ruka was only too glad to rest her head against his shoulder and close her eyes.

"Easy, there, kiddo," he said. "Looks like you've been working too hard. Where's that brother of yours, anyway? Why isn't he helping you out?"

"Rua?" she repeated, forcing her eyes open again. "I thought he was with you..."

There was a pause.

"I think," said Mikage, in a tone of forced calm, "that we had better do a little more searching."

**To Be Continued...**


	27. Brothers and Sisters

**_Notes:_** Once again, I apologize for the wait. Life has been unexpectedly hectic. I don't know when the next chapter will go up, but I promise it's being worked on and it will be posted as soon as it's ready, whenever that is. Thanks once again to Gin no Ryuu for helping to correct my many and varied mistakes.

**Brothers and Sisters**

**By: SilvorMoon**

_I don't remember it being this bad._

Rex Goodwin was not making the rapid progress he had expected. For one thing, he was no longer used to driving a D-Wheel, and it was taking him some time to regain the feel for it. The main problem, though, was that the streets of Satellite had been demolished to the point where the lightweight Security bike, built for moving quickly over the smooth streets of the city, was having trouble proceeding. It wasn't well designed for coping with rough terrain, and Rex was frequently forced to backtrack or slow to a crawl.

_It wasn't this bad when I left. I'm sure of it._ He hadn't stayed on the island for very long after the disaster, but surely it hadn't been so bad back then? Even if he had spent most of his time near the shore furthest from where the old lab had been, hoping that no one who knew him would see him, he should have noticed if it was this bad. It seemed impossible that people would live like this. How did they survive? And yet, there were signs that people have been thriving here not very long ago. He passed a fire burning in a barrel, a spread of cards where two people had been dueling not long ago, a discarded half-eaten sandwich, laundry hanging lankly in the still air.

_You could have fixed this._

At first, he thought it was Dr. Fudo, coming again to lecture him. Then he thought it was his own memory of Yusei's voice. After driving a long time and hearing no further comments, he decided it was his own conscience talking. That was unfortunate; if it had been anyone else, he could have ignored it. But he was alone, listening to his own mind tell him that he _could_have made this place better. He had the influences granted to him as a member of the Yliasters. It was that power that had made it possible to keep the influence of the Earthbound Gods at bay while the rest of the world sunk into degradation. Could he have extended it a little further, just far enough to make this island thrive for a time, or at least, make it tolerable?

_Too late now,_ he told himself. _You will have chances to try again. One way or the other, the world will be remade..._

He could tell himself that, but looking at the bleak world around him undermined his reassurances. The further he went, the more decimated the buildings, the filthier the streets, the fewer signs of human habitation. The clouds seemed lower here, too; between the intermittent flashes of lightning, he could only see a few yards ahead of him, as his headlight struggled to pierce the gloom. Even so, he knew he was getting closer to his goal. The more ruined the buildings, he reasoned, the closer to the site of the blast he must be, and these were little more than heaps of rubble, so much so that it was impossible to tell what they had once been. He began to pick up speed; there was little here that was large enough to be an obstacle to him.

Soon, he came to a place where there was nothing left at all. Any traces of life had been reduced to dust, leaving a vast plain of empty ground surrounding a deep hole in the earth. Goodwin paused at the lip of the crater, looking not down but up, remembering the lofty tower that had once been there. After seeing it every day for so long, spending some of the best years of his life there, it was still hard to make himself believe that it no longer existed. All that was left now were the basement rooms, which had remained remarkably well-preserved. Somewhere down there, too, were the remains of the Old Momentum, and where that was...

Rex found a flight of stairs. He went down.

It was hot in the pit. He hadn't gone very far before he was sweating beneath his old jacket, and he was forced to take it off. He tossed it away and let it vanish into the darkness; he wasn't going to need it anymore. The air was close and smelled of dust and hot metal and a sweet scent like ozone. The stairs beneath his feet hummed softly with a vibration that grew steadily stronger as he progressed. The lab had been defunct for seventeen years, but something down there was still alive.

Several storeys down, he paused, listening. Yes, there was the deep hum of the old engine, the creaks of a building settling in the moist night air, the skitters of brave rats and other creatures hiding from his approach, and then there was something else. Footsteps.

"Who's there?" he asked the darkness.

"Just me."

Down the stairs came Dr. Fudo, just as he had a thousand times before. Rex stared. There was nothing airy or transparent about the man at all; he looked more real than Rex felt, stripped of his social status and mobs of obedient employees. Dr. Fudo walked slowly down the stairs, his footfalls ringing on the metal treads, his pristine white coat flapping behind him.

"What are you doing here?" Rex demanded.

Dr. Fudo smiled slightly. "By that, I take it that you mean 'Why are you not moldering in the grave instead of wandering around in plain sight?' Well, I can't answer that one for certain. Perhaps the end of the world is at hand. The dead are supposed to rise at the end, yes?" He flinched at the glare Rex was leveling at him. "All right, all right. I spent a lot of time here while I was alive. This place has picked up a lot of my, hm, spiritual energy. I'm a little more real here than I would be anywhere else. There is, too, a gate to the underworld very close to here. We're right on the edge between the land of the living and the underworld. In practical terms, I am a little closer to being alive than normal, and you are a little closer to being dead."

"If you think that's a threat, you're sadly mistaken," said Rex.

Dr. Fudo sighed. "Do you think I don't know what you're doing? You're planning to become one of them, aren't you? A Dark Signer."

"You can't possibly understand what I have planned," said Rex.

"I think I can figure it out," said Dr. Fudo. "You wanted to use the arm too, didn't you? The one with the Signer's mark? What are you trying to do - play both sides off the middle?"

"More like choosing the best of both worlds," said Rex.

"There is no best," said Dr. Fudo. "Not with the Dark Signers. Have you forgotten what they are and what they stand for?"

"Death. Destruction," said Rex calmly. "Natural forces. Something must die for something else to be born. You can't tell me that everything associated with death is bad."

Dr. Fudo actually blushed. "Rex..."

"I don't want to hear it. I've thought it all through a thousand times, over the last few years," said Rex. "I understand the risks."

"Do you? Do you really know what will happen to you in the very likely event that this does go wrong?" Dr. Fudo asked him. "If you pledge your soul to the Earthbound Gods, you won't be able to back out again. One wrong move and your soul will be banished to the underworld forever. Is that really a risk you want to take?"

"It is not a risk," said Rex softly. "My brother has already made his choice. I will not go anywhere he cannot follow me."

Dr. Fudo opened his mouth to object, then closed it again. He bowed his head solemnly.

"As you wish," he said. "But let me come with you, at least part of the way."

"Why?" asked Rex. "So you can continue to try to dissuade me?"

"No," Dr. Fudo replied. "Because you're my friend, and I don't want to let you die alone."

Rex stared at him. If he had seen any sign of mockery or insincerity there, he would have ordered Dr. Fudo to leave him at once. Instead, after a long moment of thought, he nodded.

"Come, then," he said.

So they went down together, side by side, into the heat and the darkness. The sky could still be seen above them, so far away that it gave no light, but there were still a few erratically spaced electric lights flickering feebly along their path. Rex felt his heart racing, his palms sweating, and he began walking faster, so that Dr. Fudo had to scramble to keep up with him.

_It's like a dream,_he thought. Not the good kind of dream, but the kind where everything was just a few shades off from normal. He was with the professor again, going to meet his brother, just like always. It was only the setting that was different... that, and that in a few more minutes he'd probably be dead.

He reached a landing and paused to try to catch his breath. He gazed over the railing to see how much further he had to go before he reached the bottom, and as he did so, he felt a hand fall on his shoulder.

"You shouldn't have come here, Rex," said a voice in his ear.

"You should have known I would come," Rex replied.

Rudger sighed. "Why did you have to pick this one time not to listen to me?"

"It was important."

"Well, you shouldn't have..." Rudger began, and stopped. "Wait a minute - what is _he_doing here?"

Rex turned around. Rudger was looking, not at him, but at Dr. Fudo, who stood a few feet away.

"You can see him?" Rex asked.

"Of course I can see him," Rudger snapped. "I'm a servant of the gods of the dead. You don't think I can spot a ghost when it's standing right in front of me?"

"He invited himself," said Rex.

"Well, I didn't invite him. Scram," said Rudger.

"I'm only here for moral support," Dr. Fudo said, a bit sheepishly.

"This is a private conversation," Rudger replied. "Go on. Out!"

He made a gesture as though throwing something, and Dr. Fudo staggered backwards. Then he simply came apart, like a cloud in a strong wind.

"I've been trying to do that for _days_," said Rex.

Rudger gave a grunt, acknowledging the compliment. "It's not hard once you know how. So. You wanted to see me?"

"Of course."

"Walk with me, then."

Without waiting for an answer, Rudger turned and stomped away. Rex hurried after him. Rudger didn't seem to feel the heat - there wasn't a drop of sweat on him, even with the heavy robes he was wearing - but Rex was sweltering in the close air. He wished his brother wouldn't walk so fast. It seemed like every time he got close to Rudger, he just moved further away again...

"So are you going to tell me what you're doing here?" Rudger asked. "I know it wasn't just to enjoy my company."

_You're wrong,_ Rex wanted to tell him, but he didn't say it aloud.

"I did what you wanted," he said instead.

Rudger gave him a sour look. "And what was that?"

"I gathered the Signers for you. They're on their way. That's what you asked for, wasn't it? You told me to find them and send them to stop you."

"I told you to send all five!" Rudger snapped.

Rex shrugged. "The fifth mark has been stolen by a friend of some of the other Signers. No doubt he intends to use it to help them. He will probably be more suited to the task than I ever was."

"Hmph. Excuses," said Rudger.

"Can you blame me?" asked Rex. "You're my brother. I don't want to destroy you. I've done what I was supposed to do - now let me finish this along with you."

"This isn't about what you want, Rex! This is about the fate of the world," said Rudger. "I was counting on you to give me some hope that this would all work out for the best."

"It still might," said Rex.

Rudger ignored him. He opened a door and walked out onto a catwalk, one of many that crisscrossed the open center of the lab like the threads of the spiders he surrounded himself with. He leaned on the railing, and Rex followed his example. Far below them, Rex could see the light of the Old Momentum, a mass of swirling color. It was almost beautiful, in a way, like the shimmering flecks inside an opal, only these lights moved and changed constantly.

"Time gets lost when you look at it," said Rudger. "Ask me. I've had seventeen years to watch it."

"I like it better this way."

"Take a good long look, then," said Rudger. "Might be the last thing you ever see. Tell me the truth - why did you _really_ come here?"

"Just what I said. I wanted to join you.," said Rex.

"I can't let that happen."

"Duel me, then. If I win, I will be doing what you wanted in the first place. If I lose, I will be dead, and in no position to trouble you any further."

Rudger stared down at the swirling lights of the Momentum, and Rex held his breath, waiting for the answer.

"Fine," said Rudger. He readied his Duel Disk. "Step back a little - give us some room."

Rex nodded slightly and turned to walk away. Behind him, he could hear Rudger's heavy footfalls as he also took his position. When he heard them halt, Rex stopped as well. He took a deck from his pocket and fanned it out briefly, making a quick check before Rudger could see it. Yes, this was the right one - a deck designed with no other purpose but to lose. It would all be over in a matter of minutes.

"Rex," said Rudger softly, "I hate to do this."

"It is my choice," said Rex.

"No, it's not," said Rudger. "I know you too well. I know what you're up to, and I can't let you become a Dark Signer."

Rex turned to stare at him. "What?"

"I can't afford to let you die," said Rudger, "but I can't let you live, either. So I'm going to take the third option."

"But there is no..."

"Goodbye, brother," said Rudger.

He reached for a switch at the end of the walkway and threw it. Rex had only time to stare an instant, wondering what had just happened, and then a trapdoor opened up beneath him. He cried out - not in fear, but in frustration and despair. Then he plunged into the lights and was gone.

* * *

Rua shivered a little and told himself that it was only the night breeze that was making him feel cold. The place that Misty had led him to was well away from the sheltering walls of the garage, and there was nothing to stop the chill winds from hitting him with their full force. Misty stood a short distance away, watching him with a look that was strangely sympathetic. The sight of her wearing that sad expression but watching him with those strange black eyes unsettled him. It was like seeing someone else wearing the face of his friend.

"You know, we really don't have to do this," said Misty gently. "You're not a Signer. You don't have the power for a fight like this. No one can expect you to handle a responsibility this great. They won't blame you if you walk away now."

Rua shook his head. "It ought to be me."

"Very well," said Misty, sighing heavily. "I will try to end it quickly then. I don't want to hurt you."

"I really don't want to get hurt!" Rua replied.

"Don't be afraid," she told him. "If you die, I can bring you back. You'll be one of us - immortal. I won't let someone I care about die again..."

_She really means it!_ Rua thought, staring at her. She was planning on preserving him as a little boy forever, a little brother that could never leave her and never die, one she could love and protect for eternity... A chill crawled down his spine that was definitely not related to the weather.

"I won't die!" he shouted. "And I won't lose, either! My turn - draw!"

He drew his first card and nodded.

"I got a good card! Okay, I summon Deformer Radicasen! It can attack twice! How about that, huh?"

Misty shook her head. "You're so confident. Don't you realize I already know all your cards? All those times we played together..."

"I usually won!"

"Because I let you win. To make you happy."

"You're _lying!_" Rua shouted.

Misty bowed her head. "As you wish. My turn. I play Reptilianne Naga in attack mode."

Thunder rumbled overhead, the first Rua had heard since the storm began, and he looked up in surprise. Lightning was threading its way across the sky - green lightning, leisurely coiling itself into a glowing shape like a lizard. Rua yelped and jumped away as shafts of blue light burst from the ground, slithering away in all directions to form a shining wall.

"What - what is that?" he asked.

"That is to keep us from surrendering," said Misty placidly. "Neither of us leave this place until the game is over. Now, Naga, attack his monster."

The little snake-girl hissed and rushed at Radicasen, biting fiercely at it, but her fangs merely skidded off its metal sides, leaving streaks of green venom. She gave a shriek of pain and retreated.

_What was that all about?_ Rua wondered. _She has zero attack points - she should have been destroyed? Why did she even attack at all?_

Misty barely seemed to notice as her life points dropped sharply.

"Reptilianne Naga cannot be destroyed in battle," she said calmly. "However, any monster injected with her poison loses all of its attack points."

"What? No! How am I supposed to fight now?" Rua wailed.

"That's your problem now, isn't it?"

"No fair!" Rua complained.

"It's your move," said Misty simply.

Rua took a breath and told himself to stay calm. If he fell to pieces now, he really would be in trouble. He'd _die_if he lost this duel. He wished fleetingly that he had chosen to step back and let the real Signers handle this. He wished his sister was there.

"Draw! I summon Deformer Clocken in defense mode!" he said. "As long as it's in defense mode, I can put a token on it once per turn!"

"I see," said Misty. "As I recall, by tributing that monster, you can cause me one thousand points of direct damage for every token on that card. How long do you think I will allow you to keep it on the field?"

"Er... long enough?" Rua replied. "Come on, I'm doing my best here!"

"I know," said Misty. "I admire your persistence. Though why you choose to stand up for that woman..."

"It's not her fault! I told you!" Rua insisted. "It was that man - he did it! Aki didn't hurt your brother, it was the guy she works for!"

"I'm sure she told you that," said Misty. "But I have met Divine. He is dead, and he told me that it was Aki who killed him. Why would he lie about something like that?"

"I... I don't know," said Rua hesitantly. Nobody had mentioned that part to him before, and now he wondered if it might actually be true. After all, he had known Aki for less than a day, and there had been very little time to get to know her. Maybe she wasn't quite what she seemed...

"I don't blame you for being misled," said Misty. "But you must still pay for your mistake, I'm afraid. I summon Reptilianne Scylla! When she attacks and destroys a monster with zero attack points, it is summoned to my side of the field in face-up defense position. Its effects are negated, but that is a small price to pay. Now, Scylla, destroy his Radicasen!"

_Gah! I should have set a trap or something,_ thought Rua, as he watched his monster vanish and reappear on the other side of the field. He'd been too confident in his monster's power, but he'd never seen Misty use cards like these before...

"It's your turn," said Misty. "I'm glad to see you're making this easy on yourself."

"I'm not making it easy!" Rua protested. "All right! I'm really going to fight back now! I summon Deformer Radion! Then I equip it with Megamorph. Now its attack is higher than your Scylla! Radion, attack!"

The radio leaped into action, a glow of electric power expanding around it as the equip card took hold. It launched itself at Scylla, dealing her an uppercut that sent her flying, exploding in the air like a firework.

"That's what I'm talking about!" Rua exclaimed. "See, I told you I wouldn't lose! Now Clocken gets another token, and I set a facedown and end my turn."

Misty frowned. "You are being stubborn. I can see I am going to have to use more drastic measures. Very well. I sacrifice Deformer Radicasen and Reptilienne Naga to summon Reptilienne Medusa!"

The two monsters vanished from her field. Misty turned to gaze into the shadows behind her, watching as a mammoth form slithered slowly into view. From the waist down, it was an enormous serpent covered in purple scales and red spikes, its body so wide that two men couldn't have wrapped their arms around it. Not that they would have wanted to, for its upper half was even more horrible than the lower half. From the waist up, it had the body of a human woman, bloated and green-skinned, with mad red eyes and a gaping mouth from which a dangling tongue protruded. Where here hair should have been, there was a mass of serpents, slithering and hissing, snapping at the air. Rua quailed away from it.

"What the heck is that?" he yelped.

"It is Medusa," said Misty calmly. "In mythology, Medusa was a creature whose face was so horrible that one look at it would turn the strongest man to stone. Don't worry, though. This Medusa's power only works on monsters. Observe. Medusa, deal with that Radion."

Medusa turned on Rua's monster with a hiss, and her eyes glowed brightly. Radion gave a blip of fear, and Rua could have sworn he saw a look of panic in its mechanical eyes before it turned to stone. He glared at Misty.

"What did you do?" he asked.

"I told you," she said. "It was turned to stone, and can no longer move, so its attack becomes zero."

"Stop doing that!" Rua complained. Misty ignored him.

"I'll equip Medusa with Molting Escape," she said. "And now, she will attack your Radion, before you can use it as a sacrifice."

Medusa gave a roar and lunged at the petrified Radion. Rua took a breath and gestured at his trap card.

"I activate Deform!" he said. "Your attack is negated!"

The attacking monster slammed into an invisible shield, her coils bunching up and spilling over each other as she slammed to a halt. She retreated to Misty's side of the field with a hiss of displeasure. Misty frowned.

"Still prolonging the inevitable," she said. "Very well. I end my turn."

Rua gave a sigh of relief. He had dodged, for the moment, but now he had this Medusa to contend with. If she could paralyze everything he summoned, how was he going to fight back? _I can't get careless. Almost half my life points are gone already. What do I do?_

He kept fighting, that's what.

"My turn, draw!"

He studied his new card. Not the most exciting monster in the deck, but... good enough for his purposes.

"I summon Deformer Scopen!" he exclaimed. "Now I can release Scopen, Radion, and Clocken, and tune them to synchro summon the Power Tool Dragon! And that's not all - since Clocken has two tokens on it, you take two thousand points of damage!"

Two bright sparks lobbed themselves away from the frozen monster to explode around Misty, and she gave a shriek that was so filled with pain that for a moment Rua could hardly bring himself to continue fighting. Surely he shouldn't have to kill her to make her give up...

Then the smoke cleared, and he found himself looking directly into Misty's eyes - eyes that glowed as green as the mark on her arm - and he realized that she was not going to give up, now or ever. He wasn't sure she could.

"Do you think that impresses me?" she asked.

"Yes," he said stubbornly.

"No," she said. "If you had been paying attention, you would have realized that you could have put another token on that monster before you used it."

Rua fought to hide his consternation. She was right - he'd been so pleased with his clever play that he'd forgotten a detail that would have won the game for him. It was too late to go back and fix it now, though - he would just have to work with what he had.

_All right, think,_ he told himself. _Power Tool Dragon is stronger than Medusa, but with that Molting Escape, he can't destroy her. I could attack now and do some damage to her life points, but she'll just petrify him on the next turn, and if she attacks him then I'll lose for sure. I've got to try something else..._

"Okay! When Power Tool Dragon is in play, I can pick three equip cards from my deck, and you have to pick one for me to add to my hand!"

He shuffled through his deck and fished out three cards. He stared at them a moment, trying to guess which one Misty would choose. If she picked the wrong one...

"All right," he said, holding them up. "Choose!"

"The one on the left."

Rua tried not to let his relief show.

"Power Converter!" he said. "I'll equip that to my Power Tool Dragon, along with Break Draw!"

"Two equip cards? Neither of them can help you destroy Medusa," said Misty.

"I know," said Rua. "So instead, I'm beating her to the punch! Instead of letting her take all my dragon's attack points, I'm going to take them myself! By sending Power Converter to the graveyard, I can reduce Power Tool Dragon's attack to zero and add his attack points to my own life points!" "I see. Very clever," said Misty. "Now it's my turn. I play the field card Savage Colosseum!"

There was a rumble that shook the building, and Rua looked around anxiously as walls rose up around him, arches and galleries built of crumbling golden stone, its edges as jagged as the lightning that danced above it.

"What's all this for?" he asked.

"This is an arena for warriors," said Misty. "Now any monsters we have on the field must attack. We each gain three hundred points each time one of our monsters attacks. That sounds fair, don't you think? Equal risks and equal benefits for both of us."

"But... you can give my monsters zero attack points..."

"I told you I would try to make this quick," said Misty. "If you would just stop fighting, we could end this..."

"Not a chance!" Rua said.

Misty bowed her head. "I'm sorry to hear you say that. I had hoped you wouldn't push me to extremes. But if this is how it must be... Medusa, destroy the Power Tool Dragon."

The serpent struck, blasting the dragon and Rua with a wash of poisonous breath. Rua screamed as he took the full force of the attack. Power Tool Dragon, however, remained where it was, placidly letting the poison wash over it. Misty narrowed her eyes.

"What is this?" she asked.

Rua coughed a few times and straightened from his defensive crouch.

"His special effect," he said. "I removed the second equip card. Every time Power Tool Dragon is about to be destroyed, I can remove one equip card to keep it on the field."

"I see," said Misty. "Very well. I set one card and end my turn."

"Whew," said Rua. He'd survived that turn, barely. He still needed something to turn matters around, though. He contemplated his cards. He had nothing that could save him, but maybe with a little luck...

"I play Mallet of Luck!" he said. "With this, I can send all the cards in my hand back to my deck, and then shuffle it and draw a new hand."

Misty raised an eyebrow. "Out of options?"

"Not yet!" he said. "I'll never give up! You just watch!"

He shuffled the deck and examined his new cards.

"All right! This is what I need! I summon Deformer Videon! He may not look like much now, but he gains eight hundred attack points for each equip card I put on him! Once I add in a couple of equipment spells like Central Shield and Break! Draw!, he'll have twenty-six hundred attack points! That's more than enough to get through your Medusa."

"She's still equipped with Molting Escape," Misty reminded him gently. "She won't be destroyed, and on my next turn, her attack will rise and Radion's will fall back to eighteen hundred. You're only prolonging the inevitable."

"I'm not done yet!" said Rua. "I activate my trap card, Deformer Impact Return! I can send one monster from my hand to my deck, I can return up to two spells or traps on your side of the field back to your hand - and I choose to get rid of Molting Escape!"

Medusa gave a hiss, seeming to shrink in on herself as the effects of Molting Escape faded, leaving her with her original attack points.

"I'm not done yet," he said. "I'll use the spell card Junk Box to bring back one of the monsters I sent to the grave just now, and keep it in play until my end phase. I summon Deformer Cleanen!"

There was a whirr as a yellow vacuum cleaner appeared on the field, unfolding itself with a raspy roar.

"Sure, its only got zero attack points," said Rua, "but it can still attack you directly after Medusa is gone, and then your Colosseum will give me extra life points. So first, Radion, destroy that Medusa!"

Misty looked on with a sorrowful expression as her monster was destroyed, and her life points reduced to a mere three hundred.

"Okay, Cleanen, Power Tool Dragon," said Rua, "attack her directly!"

The two monsters rushed across the field, as if glad they could aid him even without attack points. Rua stood proudly as his life rose by six hundred points. Once the monsters were done, Cleanen vanished into the graveyard with a final roar.

"I'll set a trap and end my turn," Rua said.

"You are forcing me to do something I don't want to do," Misty said. "Rua, please... we were friends. We could still be friends. Why can't we be on the same side?"

"I have to help my sister," said Rua. "I can't let her do this alone, and I definitely won't fight against her! If she's going to fight, I'm going to fight, too!"

Misty gave him a look of deep pity. "Do you really think that will help? You'll lose her no matter what. Don't you understand? Even if the Signers win today, you'll lose her in the end."

"What do you mean?" asked Rua. "You mean like you lost your little brother?"

"Not like that," she replied. "The truth is, Rua, she's going to leave you eventually. You two won't be children forever. In a few more years, things are going to start to change. She'll start to become a woman soon. She'll take an interest in clothes and makeup and boys who aren't you. Eventually, she'll meet someone else she wants to spend her life with, and she'll marry and start a family of her own. You'll never be as close again as you are now."

"Why are you telling me this?" Rua demanded.

"Because," said Misty, "I can help you change it, if you'd let me. Surrender, and join us. You can be a child forever - never grow up, never get old and wither away. You and your sister will never have to be apart. Wouldn't it be better that way?"

"Never grow up?" Rua repeated.

"That's right," said Misty hopefully. "You can trust me. This time, I won't let anything go wrong..."

Rua was quiet for a long while, mulling things over. Then he shook his head.

"I'm sorry," he said, "but I know what you're trying to do, and it won't work. I can't replace your brother. I've got to stay where I belong."

"I see," said Misty. She bowed her head, biting her lip as if holding back tears. She seemed to have shrunk, as if some part of her had fallen away, leaving her diminished. She looked so forlorn that Rua had to fight the urge to run and hug her and tell her everything would be all right. Then she looked up at him again, eyes blazing green.

"You've made your choice, then," she said. "Now you will regret it! I play Reptilianne Spawn. By removing a monster with 'Reptilianne' in its name, I can summon two Reptilianne Tokens to the field. Then I sacrifice those tokens to summon the Earthbound God Ccarayhua!"

Thunder split the skies. The threads of green lightning fell to earth in a rush, drawing the darkness of the clouds down with them, binding it into a solid form to become a monstrous lizard. Rua backed away until he was pressed against the icy walls of blue flame, scrambling for an escape. The thing was simply wrong; it couldn't exist; it was more than his mind could absorb. It was looking down at him with its bulbous eyes, and there was an intelligence in them that frightened him. He knew as clearly as though it had spoken to him that it had seen him and recognized him for an enemy, and it _hated_ him. If it could get to him, it would hurt him in ways he could barely imagine, for a very long time. Maybe forever. He stood frozen, not even trying to run away anymore, sickeningly aware that he couldn't run far enough away to escape the knowledge that something like this existed.

"Do you understand now?" asked Misty. "I wanted to protect you, but now it's too late. Ccarayhua is a god. Spells and traps won't affect it, and it can attack you as though your monsters aren't even there. You have no defense against it." She met his gaze. "My offer still stands. I can still bring you back when you're dead."

Bring him back... Rua looked up at Ccarayhua, realizing what that meant. He'd belong to that thing, dependent on it for his very life. Its mind would be _inside_him, and it would never go away. He shuddered.

"It's over," she said flatly. "Ccarayhua, attack him directly."

The lizard's black tongue flicked in and out eagerly. Rua felt his heart racing in fear, but he could only stand, his mind blank with panic, as the god brought its hand down on him. Instantly, he was engulfed by darkness, as cold and crushing as an avalanche. Spots danced in front of his eyes; he couldn't breathe...

Then, suddenly, it was over. He blinked a few seconds before realizing that his knees had given out, and he was lying on the ground. He coughed a few times, trying to remember how to breathe properly. His legs were shaking so hard that he could barely stand, but somehow he managed to lever himself to his feet.

_Only one hundred life points left,_ he realized. Somehow, he had survived a direct attack from an evil god. That would be something to brag about, assuming he lived through the next turn.

"You're so stubborn," said Misty, sounding torn between admiration and exasperation. "How can you put yourself through this?"

"Because I'm doing the right thing!" said Rua. "No matter what, I have to win! I won't even let a god stop me!"

"A fine sentiment," Misty murmured, "but it's time you learned that the world won't change because of your feelings."

"Right," said Rua. "We'll see about that."

He drew his next card. He studied his hand.

_This will have to do,_ he decided.

"I set one card and end my turn," he said.

Misty smiled, a little sadly.

"So that's all you can do?" she asked. "That's sad. I had hoped to at least permit you a valiant ending. You see, no matter what is in that card you just set, it won't help you. Ccarayhua is immune to all magic and traps."

Rua regarded her grimly. "Just play."

"So be it, then," she said. Raising her hand as though it weighed ten times what it should, she said, "Ccarayhua, attack."

"Trap card, open!" Rua shouted. "Remake Puzzle!"

Misty gave him a look of consternation. "Didn't I just tell you..."

"I'm not using this trap on him," said Rua. "I'm using it on _my_ monster. If I destroy one Deformer monster on the field, your battle phase ends immediately, so you can't attack. I'm not affecting your monster directly, so it still counts. And I destroy Deformer Videon!"

He could have sworn that the god glared at him for interrupting it. He pretended he hadn't seen it.

"You will die on the next turn," Misty told him. "But if it makes you feel better, you may have these few moments. I'll win on the next turn."

Rua shook his head. "Sorry, Misty, but there's not going to be a next turn. I've won."

Disbelief flashed across her face. "What? But you..."

"I activate Remake Puzzle's second effect," said Rua. "It lets me summon one monster from my graveyard with a level lower than the one I destroyed, so I'm bringing back Deformer Cleanen! Next, I equip Cleanen with Deformer Cord! And finally, I summon Deformer Chakkan!"

"That monster only has twelve hundred points," Misty said. "It can't possibly stand up to Ccarayhua!"

"It doesn't need to," Rua replied. "Once per turn, when Chakkan is in attack mode, I can sacrifice one monster on my side of the field to do six hundred points of direct damage, and not even your god will protect you from that!"

Misty gave a shriek as her life points fell. She raised her eyes to glare at him. Her fair skin was dirty, her hair in disarray, her dark clothing turning gray from the dust stirred by the attack.

"And now," he said, "I can send an equip card attached to Morphtronic Vacuumen to the graveyard, and inflict another five hundred points of damage."

"No... no, this can't happen..."

"I'm really sorry, Misty," said Rua. "This is how it has to be."

Misty screamed as her life points dropped to nothing, but the sound was lost in the deafening cry of the Earthbound God. Ccarayhua seemed to unravel, fading into shreds of light and shadow. Rua covered his ears, but it didn't help: the earth itself trembled from the noise.

Then it was over. The wall of light went out; the green lightning fled. All that was left was Misty, standing very still in the empty night, watching him with a look of disbelief.

And someone else. Rua caught a glimpse of movement, and turned to see someone standing a few feet away. He had been hidden before by the walls of light, but now he was walking towards them, applauding.

"A splendid duel, young man," he said. "Perhaps I should have paid more attention to you and not just your sister."

"Divine!" Misty gasped. "Help me..."

"I'm afraid I can't," said Divine. "The rules of the game are clear. Losing means death. There's no changing that."

"Avenge me, then!"

"On who? Him?" asked Divine. "Not worth the effort. Anyway, I'm afraid he's right. You've been chasing the wrong girl."

Misty gave a jolt. "What?"

"Your brother went to Aki, asking her to teach him to better harness his psychic powers, and like a good girl, she sent him to me. I'm afraid he wasn't strong enough to survive my training procedures. A shame."

Misty's face creased as she tried to take it all in. "So, Aki..."

"Never even knew he was dead," said Divine. "I told her that he wasn't skilled enough and that I'd sent him home. She's completely innocent."

"You..." Misty opened and closed her mouth a few times as she groped for words. "You lied to me!"

"Yes. I did," said Divine. "And you fell for it. Silly of you. At least you provided me with a few minutes of entertainment, but now I have to be going. Goodbye, Miss Lola."

"I'll kill you!" Misty shouted. She took a step towards him, but collapsed to the ground.

Rua looked on, appalled.

"You... you bastard!" he shouted. He rushed at Divine, not sure what he was going to do, but he couldn't bear the thought of letting Divine just walk away.

Divine only laughed.

"You're too young to use words like that," he said. "See to your friend. She'll be dead soon, so you might want to say goodbye before she goes."

Rua started to argue, but then stopped.

"You won't get away with this!" he said instead.

Divine only laughed again and continued to walk away. Rua gave him a final glare before going to kneel by Misty's side. He did what he could to try to help her sit up.

"Um... are you going to be okay?" he asked. "I mean, the god's gone now. I killed it. You should be free now, right?"

She gave him a weak smile. "Rua. You have such a caring heart..."

"I don't want you to die," he said.

"You've been a good friend," said Misty. "I'm sorry I wasn't a better friend to you."

Rua forced a smile. "You did fine. Gave me cake and everything."

"Thank you," said Misty. "Will you tell Aki I'm sorry?"

"Sure," he promised.

Misty sighed and closed her eyes. "Do you think my brother will forgive me?"

"I'm sure," said Rua. "He's probably waiting for you right now."

She smiled slightly. "Toby..."

Then she fell away into dust. Rua sat there silently, looking at the place where she had been.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been there before his attention was attracted by the noise of an engine. He looked up to see two Security jeeps rolling towards him. They skidded to a halt, and his sister leaped out, followed closely by Ushio and Mikage. Ruka ran up to him and hugged him.

"There you are! We've been looking everywhere for you!" she said. "What have you been doing?"

"We've been trying to get to you," said Ushio, "but there were all these crazy lights in the way..."

"What were you thinking, wandering off alone like that?" Mikage demanded. "We've been worried sick."

"I'm okay," said Rua, trying to get to his feet while his sister was still clinging to him. "I was dueling. I fought one of the Earthbound Gods."

"You did? And you _won?_" Ruka asked.

"You don't have to sound so surprised!" said Rua.

"But you aren't even a Signer," Mikage protested. "How could you fight one of those gods all by yourself?"

"I wasn't by myself," said Rua. "Ruka and I count as one! Isn't that right?"

Ruka smiled. "Always," she agreed.

"So you finished off another of those gods, huh?" said Ushio. "If you two kids can take them down like that, then we've got nothing to worry about. I wonder how many of them there are..."

"Too many," said Rua fervently. As far as he was concerned, even one was too many. "Anyway... where's Aki? I need to tell her some stuff."

"She wandered off," said Mikage. "I thought she was with you."

"We've got to go find her!" Rua exclaimed. "That guy - Divine - I think he's gone looking for her! We've got to warn her!"

"He's looking for her?" Ruka repeated. "That's not good. She's still got a crush on him... It'll be hard for her to fight him."

"Any idea where she went?" asked Ushio.

"The Ccarayhua tower," said Rua. "Wherever that is."

"I know where it is," said Mikage. She started for her jeep. "We'll go there first, and then go to the Cusillu tower. It should be unguarded now that Ruka has defeated its controller."

Rua stared. "You beat a Dark Signer too?"

"You don't have to sound so surprised," she said, smiling proudly. "Come on, let's go find Aki. I have a feeling she's going to need some help."

**To Be Continued...**


	28. True Friends

****_**Notes**: Many thanks once again to Gin no Ryuu for correcting my mistakes. As always, you're a lifesaver._

**True Friends**

**By: SilvorMoon**

_This is messed up._

Crow had been doing some deep thinking as he drove, and this was the only firm conclusion he'd been able to come to. He had done a few remarkable things in his time - and recently he'd been doing a _lot_of remarkable things - but driving through a ghost town lit by multicolored lightning, carrying what appeared to be a man's arm in a jar, set a new standard for weirdness.

He slowed a little as he passed through a cluster of tumbledown buildings. They were no different from the surrounding city, at least to look at, but Crow paused anyway, letting his bike idle as he gazed up at an empty apartment building. Only half of its original structure was left, leaving the top floor open to the sky. It had been home once, and he'd liked it. In fair weather, he could go up to the top floor and sleep under the stars. Those had been the days when he had still been living with Yusei and Jack, and when Kiryu had been a good leader to them all. Crow had really believed that they were making a difference, back then. He'd been happy. And then...

_Why is it every time I think I've got it right, something comes along and tears it all apart?_ he wondered. _Just once, I'd like to find something that lasts._

Something roared. Crow looked up, realizing he had company. A blue D-Wheel, trimmed in orange, was racing towards him, threatening to crash into him. Just at the last second, it swerved sharply, spun several times, and halted a short distance away. The driver flashed Crow a grin. Crow rolled his eyes.

"Oh, for fuck's sake, not you again!" he said.

"I should have known you wouldn't be happy to see me," said Kiryu.

Crow shook his head. "Kiryu, I hate to be the one to point this out, but... you're dead."

"No thanks to you!"

"You're blaming me?" asked Crow, his temper flaring. "I'm not the one who told you to try to sneak into the Director's house and stab somebody with a screwdriver!"

"I wouldn't have died if you had helped me!" Kiryu snapped. Then he calmed. A gloating light came into his eyes. "But that doesn't matter now. I have some _real_ friends, now. People who are willing to help me."

"Oh, yeah? Then how come you're here and they're not?"

Kiryu gaped at him a moment, then shut his mouth and glowered.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" he demanded. "Why weren't you taken by the storm?"

"You know, it tried to take me, but I haven't had my shower today so it just spat me back out again."

"Why do you have to have a smart answer for everything?"

Crow shrugged. "'Cause I'm smart?"

"Funny," said Kiryu, scowling. "If I didn't have better things to do tonight... but you're in luck. I'm on my way to meet Yusei so I can finish what I started, so you're off the hook."

Crow felt a faint chill. Death seemed to have calmed Kiryu somewhat. There was no more wavering between fantasy and reality, no sudden shifts between vulnerability and anger. Now he was clear and focused... and still, as far as Crow could tell, completely out of his mind. Somehow, he'd been less scary the other way.

"You've had your shot at Yusei," he said. "You blew it. If you want someone to fight with, fight me! You owe me one!"

Kiryu scowled at him. "Why should I? You're not even a Signer. There's no way you could stand up to me, not while I've got the Earthbound God on my side."

"Then it won't take long to duel me, will it?" Crow retorted. "Go on. Try me. Or are you afraid you'll lose?"

"I just don't want you getting in my way again," said Kiryu. He considered. "On the other hand, I could use someone to test my new deck on before I go after Yusei... All right, why not? I'll teach you some respect."

"Good luck with that," said Crow.

"You always were too cocky for your own good," said Kiryu. "It will feel good to finally put you in your place. Let's duel!"

He revved up his D-Wheel and set the Speed World field spell into play. Crow waited for the familiar background of dark planes and glowing lines to appear overlaid over the world. Instead, the world remained as it was, but a pair of parallel walls of blue fire burst from the ground and went unfurling away into the distance, leaving a glowing track that wound its way through the streets and even through nearby buildings. Crow stared.

"How do you expect me to drive on that?" he demanded.

Kiryu grinned. "Just try to keep up."

He put his bike into gear again and raced off with his engine roaring. Crow swore and took off after him. He drove his bike through a series of hairpin curves, gritting his teeth as he tried to navigate through the narrow gaps where buildings intruded on the path. A few lengths ahead of him, he could see Kiryu racing fearlessly through obstacles, laughing wildly.

_Come on, keep it together,_ Crow told himself. _Nobody can drive a D-Wheel like you can - you're the best stunt-rider in Satellite. If he can do it, you can do it better!_

With sweat trickling down his temples, he forced his D-Wheel to go faster, taking curves at reckless speeds, until he had drawn level with Kiryu.

"What was that about keeping up?" he shouted. "Hey, I'm going to run on up ahead. Want me to pick you up anything while I'm there?"

"You're going to be sorry about that smart mouth of yours someday," said Kiryu.

"People keep telling me that, but they never deliver."

"Then let's start now!" Kiryu retorted. "My move first. I summon Infernity Beast in attack mode! Then I set one card face down."

Crow frowned a little. Infernity Beast? He'd never seen that card before, and he thought he had known Kiryu's deck well.

_No telling what he's got up his sleeve,_ he thought. _Oh well, what the hell. Taking risks got me this far!_

"My turn! I summon Black Feather - Black Lance Blast!" he declared. "Get rid of that Infernity Beast!"

"Not so fast," said Kiryu. "I activate my trap card, Depth Amulet! For the next three turns, by sending one card from my hand to the grave, I can negate one of your attacks."

"That's a coward's move!" Crow complained.

Kiryu only laughed. "That's what you think. I'll teach you what real fear means. Then you'll be the one cowering."

"As if!" Crow retorted. His monster, denied the chance to attack, returned to his side, its feathers looking ruffled. Crow set a trap card into place and subsided, bracing himself for whatever was coming next.

"Just wait and see," said Kiryu. "My turn. I summon Infernity Demon!"

A new monster appeared alongside the Infernity Beast. Crow grimaced.

"I don't like the look of your new deck," he said. "I thought you had better taste than that. Man, are they ugly."

"I didn't pick them for their looks," said Kiryu. "Or their attack power, though that might be all I need for you. Demon, destroy his Black Lance!"

The Demon gave a cackle and swooped in on Crow's monster, reducing it to nothing but black feathers. Crow flinched as he felt his life points drop.

_That didn't feel like a normal duel,_ he realized. Normally there was a little jolt when an attack hit home, but this had felt real, as though some part of his energy had actually been sucked away. He could feel his heart racing, and his breath came raggedly. He looked at the looming Infernity Beast, a huge snarling dog the size of a pony, and thought, _This is going to hurt._

Kiryu seemed to realize that too. He smiled like someone about to enjoy himself.

"Infernity Beast, attack directly!"

The dog lunged. It took all of Crow's willpower not to release his hold on the handlebars to try to protect his face. As it was, he closed his eyes and braced himself for the impact. He felt the dog slam into him, smelled its hot breath rush across his face, felt its fangs sink into his neck. His eyes snapped open, and he reached reflexively for the wound he was certain would be there. He was sure his throat should have been torn to bloody shreds, but his hand met only unmarked skin. Nevertheless, he could still feel the ghostly pricks of the monster's teeth.

"Not putting up much of a fight, are you?" Kiryu jeered. "What's the matter? Don't you want to fight me? You wanted to before. You were happy to fight with me when you broke up Team Satisfaction..."

"It wasn't my fault!" Crow shouted back. "I didn't tell the others to leave!"

"You gave them the idea!" Kiryu retorted. "You were the one who walked out on me!"

"I walked out because you started beating the crap out of me!"

"Because you disobeyed my orders!"

"You sent me to beat up little kids!" Crow shouted. "And you weren't my boss! We were supposed to be a team! It wasn't all about you!"

"They were our enemies," said Kiryu coldly. "But I don't expect you to understand. You've never known who your real friends are, have you?"

"Ha, that's rich," said Crow. "Shut up and keep playing. My turn!"

He gestured at his facedown. "Trap card, open! Black Feather Beacon! When I take damage, I can special summon a level four or lower Black Feather Monster, and I choose Shura the Blue Flame!"

A slender bird creature appeared on the field in a flash of blue light. Kiryu regarded it impassively.

"You're bound to have something better than that to throw at me," he said.

"You better believe it!" said Crow. "Since that was a special summon, I still get one normal summon, and it just so happens that when I have another Black Feather monster on the field, I can summon Elphin the Raven without a sacrifice!"

A second Black Feather appeared on the field, posing dramatically beside its comrade. Crow grinned.

"All right, guys - clear his field!"

"Not so fast," said Kiryu. "You're forgetting about Depth Amulet. I can discard two cards from my hand to negate your attacks."

Crow frowned. "You're going to run out of cards at that rate."

"That's the idea," said Kiryu, smiling smugly. "This is a special deck - my No-Hand Deck - and you're on the verge of seeing just how terrifying it can be."

"Seems to me you can't be that scary if you've got no cards to play," said Crow.

"Then let me prove otherwise," said Kiryu. "My turn! Draw!"

"You've got a card in your hand," said Crow helpfully.

Kiryu scowled. "I know that. I intend to use it! I sacrifice Infernity Beast and Infernity Demon to summon the Dark Tuner - Nightmare Hand!"

"_Dark_ Tuner?" Crow repeated. "What the hell is that?"

"The Tuner Monsters of the underworld," said Kiryu. "Watch. When Nightmare Hand is successfully summoned, I can also special summon a level two or lower monster from my grave or hand, so I'll choose one of the monsters I just discarded - Infernity Dwarf!"

A hairy little man appeared on the field, brandishing a hammer. Crow's brows knitted.

_He's going to try to synchro summon something... Nightmare Hand is level ten. Can he really summon a level twelve synchro monster? Is there even such a thing? Something doesn't feel right..._

"Now let me show you how this works. I'll tune my two monsters together, and subtract Nightmare Hand's level stars from Infernity Dwarf's."

"That makes negative eight!" Crow protested.

Kiryu grinned. "Perfect for summoning a negative eight level monster."

The Infernity Dwarf seemed to realize that something bad was about to happen to it, and it gave a raspy yelp as it tried to scramble away. The Nightmare Hand dissolved into a cluster of stars that surrounded the Dwarf and swooped down on it like locusts. Crow watched with a feeling of unease as the Dwarf was devoured, sucked up by the spinning stars.

_Whatever is coming next,_ Crow thought, _I don't think I'm going to like it._

A darkness fell over the field. It was the darkness of a deep forest - the kind with eyes glinting in it. They opened one after another, glowing and villainous. Kiryu laughed wildly.

"Now do you see?" he asked. "This is the power the Earthbound Gods have given me! Now you see who my real friends are."

"Would you stop talking about friends?" Crow demanded. "It's really pissing me off!"

"Fine, then I'll duel," said Kiryu. "One Hundred Eyes Dragon, attack Elphin the Raven!"

The dragon's eyes opened wide, glowing a violent purple. Beams of energy lanced from them, reducing Elphin to smithereens. Crow winced, feeling the heat from the blast wash over him.

_Not good. Three thousand attack points. Where am I going to get three thousand attack points in a hurry? I'm down to fifteen hundred life points already and he's not even scratched yet..._

"So, what do you think?" asked Kiryu. "The One Hundred Eyes Dragon gains the effects of monsters in my graveyard. Attacking me only makes it stronger! You'll never be able to destroy it!"

"We'll see about that," Crow muttered. "Oh, we'll see," said Kiryu. "I'm looking forward to seeing. I set one card and end my turn." Crow frowned. Truthfully, he wasn't sure what he could do this round, if anything. Nothing in his hand was strong enough to take on that dragon.

_But I'm not giving up - not yet! I've gotten out of tougher scrapes than this!_

"I'll summon Etejia the Double Longswords in defense mode, set a facedown and end my turn," he said.

Kiryu sneered. "Cowering behind a defense monster! And not even a very strong one. You're losing your touch, Crow."

"Yeah, well," said Crow, "you've lost your mind, so now we're even."

"Even? Not even close," said Kiryu. "I'm far, far ahead of you. Just watch! I play the speed spell Power Baton! By sending one card in my deck to the graveyard, I can increase One Hundred Eyes Dragon's attack by the attack points of the monster I sent to the cemetery. I choose to send Infernity Destroyer. That's an extra twenty-three hundred points for my dragon."

"My monster is still in defense mode," Crow pointed out patiently. "Those extra points aren't going to do you any good."

"You haven't been paying attention," said Kiryu. "I can give my dragon the effects of any monster in my cemetery, and - what do you know? - Infernity Dwarf's effect is that the difference between my monster's attack points and your monster's defense points can be subtracted from your life points." He grinned. "This is the end, Crow."

Crow flinched. _Here it comes..._

The dragon roared as beams of light rained down from its many eyes, sending up explosions of dust and rock where they struck the earth. Crow dodged wildly, trying to weave between both the bolts from the dragon and the debris in his path. He skidded on a patch of loose gravel and careened out of control, crashing through the window of a building and disappearing in a flurry of falling glass. Kiryu laughed wildly.

"So long, old friend," he said. "Sorry we didn't have more time together."

"Oh, yeah?"

With the snarl of an overtaxed engine, Crow's bike emerged through the demolished window, carrying a still very much alive Crow. Blood trickled from a dozen cuts left by the glass, and his clothing was torn, but his eyes were alert and blazing.

"What?" Kiryu yelped. "What is wrong with you? That hit should have finished you!"

"Not even close," said Crow. He flashed a grin. "Remember, I'm the trickster of our little team. I've always got something up my sleeve. You used to know that... guess you're the one losing your touch."

Kiryu's pale face went blotchy with rage. "How did you - how could you...?"

"I abandoned Black Feather - Jet the Blue Sky from my hand to my grave. That saves my monster and reduces all my damage to zero," said Crow. "Nice try, old buddy. Better luck next time."

The look Kiryu gave him should have melted steel, but Crow simply gave him his no-idea-what's-going-on grin in return.

"I end my turn," said Kiryu sullenly.

"Right," said Crow. "Here goes nothing."

He drew his next card, looked at it, and gave a tiny sigh of relief. This, he thought, just might work.

"Try this on for size," he said. "I summon Black Feather - North Pole Blizzard. When I successfully summon this card, I can bring back a level four or lower monster from my graveyard and summon it in defense mode, so I'll bring back Jet the Blue Sky. Next, when I have monsters with 'Black Feather' in their name, I can special summon Black Feather - Hurricane Gale, so I'll go ahead and do that now."

"You're going to try a synchro summon?" Kiryu snarled.

"That's how the game is played!" Crow agreed. "I'll tune my North Pole Blizzard to Etejia the Double Longswords and Jet the Blue Sky to summon Black Feather - Armored Wing!"

Crow's monsters dissolved into a flurry of stars, bright against the dark sky. Crow watched them as they performed their spinning dance.

_Hey, wasn't that red dragon some sort of star god? Well, here are some stars for you!_

The lights clustered together, merged into a single form, and expanded to become a powerful armored warrior with a pair of broad black wings. It gave a caw of defiance, fixing its eyes on the looming dragon.

"Lucky for me," said Crow, "Armored Wing can't be destroyed in battle, and when he attacks a more powerful monster, the damage I take is reduced to zero. Just watch!"

At a word of command from Crow, Armored Wing leapt into action, soaring up to jam a spike straight into the dragon's heart. The dragon almost looked puzzled as Armored Wing returned to Crow's side of the field.

"You know what's coming next, don't you?" said Crow, flashing Kiryu a grin. "When Armored Wing attacks, he leaves behind a Wedge Counter. When I remove that Wedge Counter, your dragon's attack goes to zero!"

The spike exploded, sending radiating cracks through the dragon's shell. The dragon gave a roar of displeasure, focusing all of its eyes on Crow with a look of pure fury, but he was on a roll. Not even an angry dragon was going to slow him down.

"And now, I attack your dragon!" he said. "Go, Hurricane Gale!"

The little bird fluttered high into the air. With a flap of its wings, it sent a gust of wind towards the One Hundred Eyes Dragon. The dragon gave a groan as bits of it crumbled away, bits of it streaming into plumes of dust and vanishing into the night. Hurricane Gale returned to Crow's side with a satisfied chirp. If he hadn't needed both hands to duel and drive, he would have been tempted to pat it on the head.

Kiryu glared at Crow. His expression wasn't wildly enraged anymore, but icy, full of cold menace. Up until now, he'd been playing a game. Possibly the other player was an annoying opponent who didn't quite play by the right rules, but it had still been a game. He hadn't really been taking it seriously.

"Now it's serious," he said.

"It's _been_ serious," said Crow. "Haven't you been paying attention? My life is on the line - that's pretty serious to me!"

"You should have helped me when you had the chance," said Kiryu.

Crow twitched.

"Help you? _Help_ you? What the hell do you think I've been doing?" he shouted. "I have done nothing _but_ help you! You asked me to be part of your team and I tried to help you. When Security came for you, I tried to help you get away. When you begged me to get you out of that prison, I helped you. I have put my life on the line for you. I betrayed my friends for you, I risked losing my kids for you, I risked going to jail for the rest of my life for you, I risked being _killed_ for you. Everything that ever mattered to me, I gave it all up for you, and you have the fucking _nerve_ to complain that I didn't help you! _What more do you want out of me?_"

The explosion of words was so violent that even Kiryu was taken aback. "Crow..."

"Don't start in on me!" Crow shouted. "I don't want to hear it! You keep talking about 'true friends, true friends', like it means something important. You know what I think it means? I think it means the only people you want to be friends with are the ones who'll kiss your ass and let you do whatever you want. Anybody who ever disagrees with you or tries to stop you from doing something _stupid_ suddenly isn't your friend anymore. When it all comes down, everything is about you."

"That's not true!" Kiryu shouted. "You know it's not true! I wanted to make Satellite a better place!"

"Yeah, well, you coulda fooled me," said Crow. "Looks to me like what you wanted was to stab Yusei to death with a screwdriver, and now you're trying to bring the world to an end. Here's a hint: turning the rest of the world into a wreck _isn't going to make Satellite any better._"

"Satellite can't be saved," said Kiryu.

"Yes, it can!" Crow insisted. "The Director promised he'd fix it. That's what Yusei was doing up there. I told you that already."

"The Director will never fix anything."

"Then we hold out for the next one! We keep trying!" Crow insisted. "I'm not going to give up. I love this place and I'm going to do everything I can to make it better." He swallowed hard. "And the same goes for you. I'm still your friend, Kiryu. And it used to be that you loved this place as much as I do, and you wouldn't have stood for anybody trying to threaten it. And that's why I've got to bring you down, before you do something you'd regret if you weren't _completely off your rocker!_"

"You're the one who's crazy," said Kiryu. "This island is doomed. This whole planet is doomed. It's diseased. I thought it was just this island - that if I went to the other side, things would be better, but they're _not_. There's nothing left worth saving."

"Nothing?" Crow repeated. "Not your friends? What about Martha? And the kids? For that matter, what about the guard who used to let me out of my cell and tell me about his family? What about the old guy who let me live with him even though he doesn't know me, just because I needed help? What about the officer who went out and bought my kids pizza and cards because he knew I can't take care of them right now?"

Kiryu stared for a moment, as though Crow had just suggested something so utterly nonsensical that he needed a moment simply to figure out what he'd just said.

"A Security officer helped you? When did that happen?"

"Same day you attacked Yusei. Somebody had to look after them, so I sent him."

Kiryu's eyes narrowed. "How do you know he really did it?"

"Because he brought back a letter from my kids," said Crow. "And Inspector Sagiri gave me my bike back, with all my lockpicks and everything. And they found me a safe place to stay."

"Why would they do that?"

"Geez, I don't know, it must be part of their evil plan to destroy the world!" Crow snapped. "Because they're decent people! Do I have to draw you a map?"

"But..."

"You know, it's pretty sad when I can trust the guys from Security more than I can trust you," said Crow. "Wake up, Kiryu! You say Yusei sold out - that he turned against Satellite to hang out with the guys with the power who are trying to keep this place down. But it wasn't him. It was you. You sold everything you have, even your soul, to the bullies to get power, and you're going to use it to wipe out our home. So yeah, good luck getting any _friends_to help with that."

"But..." said Kiryu again. He was staring around as if he had no idea where he was or how he'd gotten there. "But I didn't..."

Crow continued to stare at him, his expression saying clearly, _You aren't fooling anyone._

"This isn't how I meant for it to turn out," said Kiryu helplessly.

"Then don't let it," said Crow. "Seriously. You can stop. Give up, before you do something else you won't want to live with."

Kiryu hesitated, plainly at war with himself. Very, very slowly, his hand went towards his deck, hovering just over the cards.

"I..." he began. "I surren..."

He twitched. A spasm ran through his body, making him throw back his head and howl like a wounded beast. He shook himself, his hair bristling. When he looked back at Crow, his eyes were glowing a brilliant blue.

_So much for the pep talk._

"Nice try," said Kiryu. Or rather, something said _through_Kiryu, something with a voice that seemed to come from the earth as much as his body. "You can't break his contract so easily."

"Then I'll do it the hard way!" Crow shouted back. "I won't let you keep my friend's soul!"

"You have no choice," said the voice. "My turn. I activate the special effect of Hundred-Eyes Dragon. When this monster is destroyed, I can add one Earthbound God card from my deck to my hand. Next, I activate my trap card - Impulse of Limit! By discarding two cards, I can summon two Soul Tokens. Then I sacrifice them both..."

He didn't have to say what he was doing with them. Even as he spoke, the earth began to tremble. A huge dark hand emerged from the ground, and Crow swerved around it as it reached grasping fingers for him. The first hand was followed by a second, and there was a great straining in the earth as something dragged itself through the dirt. Crow tried to cover himself as dust and bits of rock rained down on him. As the chaos began to settle, Crow risked looking up again to see what he was dealing with.

_Wow. That's... a really big monster._

Big was an understatement - it filled the world, it blotted out the sky. It was looking down at him with a single Cyclopean eye, and Crow could almost see the menace radiating from it. He felt helplessness well up inside of him. How was he supposed to do this? It was too much; there should have been a real hero doing this, not just some stray person who had blundered onto the playing field and demanded a shot at the game. He was about to be struck down by the gods for his impudence, and there was nothing he could do about it...

Kiryu laughed - a weird laugh that slid up and down the pitch scale, from the deep rumbling beneath the earth to the wild high strains of someone who had left sanity far behind.

"You see it, don't you?" he asked. "The glory of the great god Ccapac Apu. Feel honored, Crow! I didn't think you would be able to last this long. This is your reward!"

"Couldn't you have just bought me a drink or something?" Crow asked, and winced. There were days when he wished his mouth would consult with his brain more often.

"I hope you think that was clever," said Kiryu. "Those will be your last words. Ccapac Apu is a god; he can bypass your monsters as though they aren't even there. You don't have enough life left to withstand this attack. This is the end, Crow. Goodbye... old _friend_."

Crow could only stare in horror as the dark god turned towards him with ponderous slowness. It reached out one of its massive hands toward him, bringing it down slowly until the rest of the world was blotted out, leaving him surrounded by darkness...

No, not surrounded. There was a soft red glow somewhere behind him. He had been so caught up in his duel that he had forgotten about the arm. The dragon mark on it was glowing like firelight.

_You're still with me, aren't you, red dragon? I keep asking you for help, but you want this done, right? Help me. Let me save my friend, and I won't ask for anything else. Even if I die here, at least let me stop Kiryu..._

He felt a sudden pain in his arm, and he gasped, feeling as though his skin had caught fire. Even as he watched, the mark on the arm disappeared, and at the same time, a bright red glow began shining the thick fabric of his glove. He grinned.

"Well, if that's how you feel about it," he said. "All right. Let's do this."

In the next moment, the hand slammed down over him.

"It's over," said Kiryu.

And the reply came, muffled but distinguishable: "Not just yet."

"What?"

Ccapac Apu raised its hand. Crow was underneath, looking more than a little scuffed but definitely still alive. Kiryu gaped at him.

"What is wrong with you?" he demanded. "Why won't you just give up and die?"

"I guess your god isn't as powerful as all that," said Crow. "I activated Hurricane Gale's special effect - once per turn, I can halve the attack and defense of one of your monsters, even a big ugly one like that."

Kiryu scowled. "That trick won't save you twice."

"Won't have to," Crow replied. "Trap card open - Black Feather Beacon!"

"You already played that card!" Kiryu objected.

"It's a good card," said Crow. "I got two of them. Who says the same trick won't save me twice?" He grinned at Kiryu's expression. "You should know the drill by now - when I take damage, I can summon one level four or lower Black Feather monster, and I choose Foehn the Steel Chain!"

"Summon all the monsters you want," Kiryu scoffed. "They still can't protect you from Ccapac Apu."

"That's what you think! I still have a normal summon left," said Crow. "I sacrifice my Hurricane Gale to summon Sirocco the Dawn!"

A shaft of light fell across the field, making the dark feathers of his monsters gleam. Hurricane Gale melted into the light, and became a tall, proud-featured warrior bird, its head held high.

"Once per turn," Crow continued, "when this monster is on the field, I can choose one of my other monsters, and it will gain attack points equal to every other monster on the field except itself. I choose Foehn the Steel chain. He gains the attack power of Sirocco the Dawn and Armed Wing, which means his attack goes up to five thousand!"

"Don't you understand anything?" Kiryu replied. "Ccapa Apu is a god! No matter how much you raise your attack power, no mere mortal monster can touch it!"

"Maybe so," said Crow, "but you're not a god, and I can attack you just fine - and the reason I chose Foehn the Steel Chain is that he's the only monster I have who can attack directly!"

"What? No!" Kiryu exclaimed.

"Sorry, buddy," said Crow. "Looks like your god isn't so powerful after all. Go, Foehn!"

The little bird gave a shriek and took to the air. For a moment, its wings flashed in the golden sunbeams brought by Sirocco the Dawn, giving it a dazzling glow. Then it wheeled around and fell towards Kiryu like a meteor.

Kiryu screamed. His D-Wheel went wild, skidding over the road and finally crashing into the edge of a sidewalk. Kiryu was flung through the air, and he landed hard, skidding and rolling until he came to a halt amid the crumbling edge of a wall. Ccapa Apu gave a roar as it began sinking back into the earth, but already it sounded weak, its voice distant and echoing. It vanished from sight. The tracks of blue flames vanished. Everything went silent.

Crow parked his D-Wheel and ran over to his friend's side.

"Kiryu?" he said uncertainly. "Hey... are you... you know, not dead?"

Kiryu stirred a little. He gave Crow a weak smile.

"Nope," he said softly. "Still dead."

"Hey, I'm the one with the wise-ass comebacks," said Crow. He went to kneel next to his friend, and Kiryu turned his head slightly to look at him. His eyes were their old color again, pale and golden, like the last rays of the sun. "You... you aren't really going to die just because you lost a duel, right?"

"I'm already dead," said Kiryu. "Just haven't... stopped moving yet. Crow. You were right. I really screwed up, didn't I?"

"Yeah, you did," Crow agreed softly. "I'm really sorry it ended like this."

"Me too," Kiryu replied. "Thanks... for trying to help me. Nobody could have tried harder than you. You are... a real friend. Better than I deserved."

"Don't talk like that," said Crow.

"I'm trying to tell the truth, here. Let me have this," said Kiryu. He laughed a little. "It's hard to be satisfied with an ending like this, isn't it?"

Crow swallowed hard. "Kiryu..."

"Keep trying," said Kiryu. "Maybe one day, you'll get more done than I did." He gave a sigh. "I'm sorry..."

Crow clasped his shoulder. "We're still friends."

Kiryu nodded slightly. "Still..."

And then he was gone.

For a few moments, Crow simply sat there, trying to absorb what had just happened. Then he got up and walked slowly back to his bike. The arm was still on the back. He half expected that the mark would have gone back to it, now that Crow no longer needed any help, but there was nothing there. Crow pushed his glove back and saw a tracery of red lines on his skin. He rubbed at them experimentally, but they stayed put. He looked back at the arm and wondered whether he ought to get rid of it, but it seemed somehow disrespectful. He wasn't even exactly sure whose it was. You didn't just go around throwing people's arms into dumpsters. With a shrug, he settled it more securely on the back of his bike, and then he drove.

**To Be Continued...**


	29. Aki Cuts Down A Tree

_**Note:** Two of the cards used in this duel are my own invention. I take full responsibility for questionable effects and/or Quechua translations. Thanks once again to Gin no Ryuu for her valuable input regarding duels._

**Aki Cuts Down a Tree**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Yusei parked his D-Wheel and turned off the engine. He stood and listened a moment, scanning the streets and buildings for any signs of life, but the world was still and silent. It unnerved him. Seeing all of Neo Domino city disappear into a cloud of fog - that, he could handle. The city had never really been real to him. It was a magical world, an enchanted palace, something out of a fairy tale. Somewhere deep down, he hadn't quite believed it existed as anything more than a collection of lights on the other side of the water.

This was his home, though. This was real. And the most important part of it was gone.

He climbed down the ladder that led to the abandoned pipeline where he and his friends had carved out their living space. There were still lights down there, running off the generator he'd built. They were faint, nearly out of power, but bright enough that he could fool himself for a few minutes that there was still someone down there. Maybe there was. Maybe down here below the ground, they'd been safe from the fog...

There was no one there. Yusei checked the rooms where Taka and Nerve and Blitz slept, and where Rally's hammock hung, but everything was empty. Yusei found himself walking around staring at things, as though he expected to find his friends hiding under a stack of papers or tucked under a pillow.

_I wasn't even here..._

Guilt stung at him. All this time, he had been living in Goodwin's mansion, spending money on whatever he pleased and being waited on by servants, spending time with his new friends, while everyone here had been waiting for him to come back. He shook himself.

_There's nothing I could have done here,_ he told himself. _And I'm not doing anyone any good hanging around here._

All the same, he found himself reluctant to leave. This was his home. He'd missed it. It was easy to be lulled into a sense that he'd be safe as long as he stayed there.

He was jerked from his thoughts by a sudden flash of heat running up his arm, as though something were melting. He pushed up his sleeve to see his mark burning there, bright enough to light up the dim room. Then as he watched, the red lines flickered and disappeared... and then redrew themselves into a new shape. Yusei found himself looking into the eye of the red dragon. It pulsed a few times, and Yusei had the odd sensation that it was settling into his skin.

"What is going on out there?" he asked aloud.

He rushed back outside and stood staring up at the sky. The colored lightning was still winding its way across the sky, but only in sporadic flashes. There were other lights, though, glowing against the darkness of the sky as though projected onto a screen. Yusei didn't like the look of them.

_That's where I'm needed, _he decided, and he returned to his D-Wheel and drove.

* * *

Aki had found the tower at last. It was a wicked-looking thing, a great pointed spike that speared the sky. She had even found a little control room with a slot in it that looked as though it would accept a card. She had wavered for a few minutes, deciding whether or not she should insert the Black Rose Dragon, or whether she should wait a while longer to see if any more danger would turn up. Misty had promised that she would get there, and Aki was sure that turning the tower off would probably do no good if Misty just came and turned it on again. But where _was_she? It had been a long time already...

When she did at last hear footsteps, she almost didn't notice them. After all, she was waiting for Misty to arrive, and her ears were attuned to the sound of a woman's light footfalls. This was a man's confident tread, and so familiar to her that it took her some time to realize that it was out of place.

Then a voice said, "Hello, Aki. Imagine finding you way out here."

Her head jerked up. Standing a few feet away was her old teacher. He was dressed in clothing she'd never seen before, black and trimmed in violet, with a cloak flung over his shoulders like a royal robe. He was smiling at her pleasantly, as if he had just happened to run into her downtown somewhere and was thinking of perhaps inviting her to join him for lunch.

"Divine," she said.

"Surprised to see me?" he asked. "Aki, you know there is nowhere you can go that I won't seek you out. You see, I'm very forgiving. Even if you abandon me, I won't forget about you."

"I... I didn't mean to abandon you," she stammered. She hated herself for it. She knew she had left him for very good reasons. He had mistreated her badly. She'd had every right to walk away from him. She knew that, and yet, seeing him here in front of her, it was all she could do not to fling herself at him and beg for his forgiveness.

"Of course you didn't," said Divine soothingly. "I understand. You've been listening to outsiders again, haven't you? Aki, angel, you _know_better than that. You know all they want to do is use you. They'll cast you aside as soon as they're done with you. Isn't that how it's always been?"

"You... you were going to do it too," she said, her voice weak and shrill in her own ears. "You were going to sell me. You experimented on me. I saw the papers."

Divine shook his head sadly. "Aki... I was going to _hire_ you. You aren't averse to getting a job someday, are you? I was merely looking for someone who would be able to make use of your particular talents, and trying to negotiate a reasonable salary for you. There's nothing wrong with wanting to make sure my favorite student does well in the world, is there?"

Aki hesitated. She had been certain of what she had read in those folders, but... she had read them in a haze of confusion and fear, and they weren't there now for her to look at and reassure herself with. Divine sounded so confident, so sincere...

He took a few paces forwards. "Don't worry. I don't blame you. But you understand, don't you, that your actions are going to have consequences..."

"What kind of consequences?" she asked.

"That depends," said Divine calmly, "on how cooperative you decide to be. We can settle this without fighting."

Aki began to ask how she could do that, and then caught herself. Settle this? Settle what? Very carefully, she asked, "Just what are we supposed to be fighting about?"

Divine smiled at her. It suddenly struck her that it was not a nice smile, that it had never been a nice smile.

"The world, Aki," he said. "We're fighting about the world... and what we are going to do with it."

"I'm not going to do anything with it," she said automatically. "I just want to go home, to my parents. And my friends."

He shook his head: _Poor, misguided Aki._

"We've been over this before," he said. "You don't have any friends. Your family doesn't want you."

"Yes, they do," said Aki. "I saw my father."

"Oh, really?" asked Divine. Again, he gave her that gentle, pitying smile. "And what did you see? Does your father usually have black eyes and a glowing mark on his arm? Can he usually summon rings of fire?"

"No, but..."

"It was a stock," he said. "A fake. Merely a phantom conjured up to delay and confuse you - something to keep you busy until Misty had the time to come finish you off herself."

"But..." she said, and trailed off. She had been so sure it had been her father, but Divine sounded so calm and sensible, so sure of himself, that it was hard to make herself doubt him.

"As for your friends," he continued, "if they care so much about you, why aren't they here? This is a dangerous area. They shouldn't have let you wander off alone like this."

"They trust me," she said. "They... they know I can do this on my own."

"When have you ever been able to do anything on your own?" asked Divine softly. "What have you ever accomplished that wasn't because of my help, or because you had a rich father to support you... or so-called friends to tell you what to do?"

"I..." Aki began, and stopped. She bit her lip, trying to maintain her courage.

"That's right," said Divine. "You never have. What makes you so sure that this time is going to be different? Because they told you that you were a Signer, and that you're some sort of legendary hero? Haven't you always told me that your mark was a curse and brought you nothing but bad luck?"

She said nothing. Divine smiled at her.

"That's better," he said. "Now, let's settle down and see if we can work this matter out peacefully."

"What matter?" she asked.

"This whole messy business with the Signers and the Dark Signers," he answered calmly. "It shouldn't have to be settled with fighting. Turning friends against friends... it's just too cruel. You surely don't want to fight me, do you?"

"No," she said.

"And I don't want to fight you," Divine replied. "How could I? No, what I want is for the two of us to work together. We can end the fighting here, and put an end to everyone's suffering. Wouldn't you like that?"

"Are... are you sure that's possible?" she asked doubtfully.

"Of course I'm sure," he said. "Just put down your Duel Disk and come join me. Help me. We can fix this whole thing together."

His voice was low, soothing, almost making her drowsy. Without even thinking about it, Aki began to unfasten her Duel Disk. She let it drop from her arm and clatter to the ground, and then began walking slowly towards him. He gave her an encouraging smile.

"That's right. Good girl. Just let me take care of everything..."

Aki had made it halfway to him when she was stopped short by a stabbing pain in her arm. She jerked awake, swatting at the mark on her arm as though it were a fly. She blinked a few times. Awake? Had she been sleepwalking? She looked at Divine and saw a look of consternation flash across his face before quickly vanishing. She thought of his hypnotic voice...

_He's manipulating me,_ she realized. _Just like always._

"No," she said.

"Aki, don't be stubborn..."

"I will be," she said. "And I won't let you take care of everything. It's time for me to start taking care of myself."

Divine scowled. "I didn't want it to come to this, but if you are going to be willful, than I'm afraid you leave me no choice. I'm going to have to find some other way to persuade you."

He made a swift movement, and Aki had just enough time to register the blaze of light that appeared in his hand and recognize what he was about to do. She dove out of the way, and a fireball whizzed over her shoulder, closely enough that it singed her hair as it passed and left a smouldering patch on her shoulder. She fell to the ground and rolled. The fireball hit the ground, leaving a patch of melted-looking asphalt and a haze of noxious smoke. Aki made a grab for her Duel Disk and hurriedly strapped it to her arm before she'd even gotten to her feet. Divine smiled at her, tolerantly, as though she were a misbehaving toddler whose antics mildly amused him.

"Are you going to duel me, then?" he asked.

"You just tried to kill me," said Aki, her voice full of disbelief.

"Of course not," he said. "I tried to hurt you. I wouldn't have killed you with that. Don't worry - I've tested you extensively. I know exactly where your limits are."

His expression never changed; his voice stayed as pleasant as if he were talking about the weather.

_He's insane,_ Aki thought numbly. He didn't regret hurting her at all - in fact, he seemed rather pleased with his cleverness. For a moment, something like despair washed over her. All this time, she had been telling herself that the world was all right as long as Divine loved her...

Then she got angry. Power flared around her in a red nimbus, making her hair and dress flutter in an unseen wind.

"You want to hurt me?" she said. "You lied to me. You used me. You experimented on me like I was an animal. You broke my heart. You think you know where my limit is? Well, you... just... _crossed it_."

Divine stepped back, his smile faltering. "Now, Aki, just calm down..."

"No," she said. She snapped her cards into the Duel Disk. "Now we duel."

Divine faltered a moment, but then relaxed, all smiles again. There even seemed to be a glint of triumph in his eyes, and Aki wondered fleetingly if she had made the wrong choice.

"Very well," he said. "As the challenged party, I'll take the first turn. I summon Krebons in attack mode! Then I set one card and end my turn."

Aki pressed her lips together as she rapidly sorted through her options. She knew Divine's style well, but it was by nature unpredictable, with his life points fluctuating widely throughout the game. She would have to be on her guard, ready for anything. Had she ever been able to beat him in a serious duel? A few days ago she would have said yes, but that was before she had known just how much he had lied to her. She would just have to assume she couldn't be sure of anything, now, including his playing style. Better to take an offensive and get as much of an advantage as she could as soon as possible.

"I summon Evil Thorn," she declared. "By tributing this monster, I can deal three hundred points of damage to you, and summon two more Evil Thorns in its place."

A flower bloomed on her field as she spoke - bloomed, and promptly exploded, spraying shrapnel everywhere. Divine flinched as he was sprayed with bits of metal. Aki tried not to let the sight bother her. It reminded her too much of how he'd looked when the jewelry box had struck him.

"Now I play the spell card Closed Plant Gate," she continued. "For the next turn, you can't attack."

"Well played," said Divine, as though this were just another lesson. "I'm glad to see you aren't going to disappoint me."

"This isn't a game!" said Aki. "Take me seriously!"

"I am taking you seriously," said Divine. "And this is a very serious game. In a few more turns, you'll see just how serious it is. Now... since there is no point in attacking, I will simply set a monster in defense mode and turn things back over to you." He made one of his little bows, as though he were holding open a door for her. "Your move."

_He's mocking me,_Aki thought, feeling herself growing angry. Anger helped clear her mind a little. If she could stay angry at him, she could fight him.

"Fine," she said. "I sacrifice my Evil Thorns to summon Gigaplant."

If Divine felt any unease at seeing such a large and powerful monster appearing before him, his face didn't show it. If anything, he looked rather smug. Aki tried to ignore it.

"Gigaplant, attack his monster!" she ordered. The giant plant obediently lashed out with a vine tentacle and crushed the face-down card. Aki got a brief glimpse of Divine's monster before it vanished into sparks. Divine barely flinched. Aki frowned; this was all wrong. He was playing so passively. He should have at least used some sort of special effect - every monster in his deck had a special effect of some sort. Had death made him careless? No, he had to have something up his sleeve...

"I end my turn," she said.

"That's all?" asked Divine. "Aki, dearest, are you losing your nerve so soon? The fight has barely started. Very well. I summon Psychic Snail. However, since attacking your Gigaplant would be quite foolish, I will set one card and end my turn."

Aki frowned. He had left his monster in attack mode, which was an obvious invitation to attack, and those face-down cards were an equally obvious indication that he was setting her up for a trap. Then again, he was playing so strangely today, and his jibe about losing her nerve had stung. What kind of duelist would she be if she let herself be cowed into refusing to attack when she had a chance? But that didn't mean she couldn't buy herself a little insurance...

"I activate Gigaplant's special effect!" she said. "Because it is a Gemini monster, I can summon it a second time. From now on, once per turn, I can special summon a second Plant-type monster, and I choose Lord Poison!"

Divine shook his head pityingly.

"Trap card," he said. "Raigeki Break. By discarding a card from my hand, I can destroy one of your monsters. Your Gigaplant is destroyed."

Aki tried not to let her dismay show as her monster dissolved into flecks of light.

"I still have one monster remaining," she said. "Lord Poison, attack Krebons."

"I activate Krebons' effect," said Divine. "By paying eight hundred life points, your attack is negated."

Aki frowned a little. The damage he would have taken by letting Lord Poison's attack go through was far less than the points he had spent to keep his monster on the field. He must have been planning something - summoning something, most likely. Well, two could play that game.

"I set two cards and end my turn," she said.

Divine calmly drew his next card.

"You seem so confident," he said. "I wonder why. Haven't you figured anything out yet?"

"There's nothing to figure out," said Aki. "You and I are dueling, and I'm going to win."

"Really? And here I thought you'd done your homework," said Divine. "Didn't you know about the experiments?"

Aki regarded him warily. "What about them?"

"Well, you know, I did have to take a few precautions," said Divine. "Your power is very strong - stronger than I could ever dream of being. I had to find some way to keep your abilities from getting away from you. You understand that it was really best for all of us if I found some way of controlling you in an emergency."

"Controlling...?" Aki repeated.

"Of course," Divine replied. "To keep you from hurting anyone. It's really for your own good. I installed a few safeguards - ways of reigning you in if you should ever get out of hand..."

Aki stared at him. "You wouldn't."

"I could," he said. "I would rather not, but I could. I would much prefer that you give in voluntarily. I will give you... hm, two turns. That should be enough. Think carefully, my dear. I would hate to see something happen that we'd both regret."

"You wouldn't regret it," Aki blurted out.

Divine just smiled. "Two more turns. I summon Psychic Jumper. Then I can tune him to Krebons and Psychic Snail to summon Thought Ruler Archfiend."

Aki grimaced as the fiendish monster appeared on the field in a crackle of electricity. It was one of his best monsters; the fact that he'd summoned it now meant he felt he was closing in for the kill.

"Thought Ruler, my pupil is in need of a lesson," he said. "Attack Lord Poison."

The Archfiend flourished its wings and shot a blast of energy. Aki could feel the heat of its fire washing over her, but she gritted her teeth and bore it. She refused to show any weakness now.

"I activate Lord Poison's effect," she said. "I can re-summon Gigaplant."

A vine sprouted from the ground, shooting upwards and expanding at a rapid rate. Divine watched with an expression of mild interest.

"My, my," he murmured. "So impressive. I suppose I had better end my turn now, hadn't I?"

Aki frowned. Divine was a better duelist than to let a turn go by with nothing more than a single attack. Shouldn't he have at least set some cards? She shouldn't worry about it - why be upset if he was giving her an advantage? - but she couldn't believe he would make a careless mistake like that.

"I summon Grow-Up Bulb," she said, "and I tune it to my Gigaplant to summon Black Rose Dragon!"

"Not so fast," said Divine. "Trap Card - Mind Over Matter! By sacrificing a Psychic-type monster, I can negate the summoning of your monster and destroy it."

There was a flash as his Thought Ruler Archfiend abruptly exploded, with enough force to take the Black Rose Dragon along with it.

"You destroyed your own monster just for that?" she asked.

"You'd be surprised," said Divine. "Have you anything else you'd like to try?"

Aki scowled and slotted two facedown cards into her Disk. "Turn end."

"Watch and learn, my dear," said Divine. "I play the Field Spell, Reincarnation Road. Next, I'll trigger the trap card Premature Burial. At a cost to my life points, I can resummon Thought Ruler Archfiend."

The demon reappeared on the field. Divine smiled placidly.

"Now, here we are again," he said. "Except this time, you have no way to summon your dragon. Thought Ruler, attack her directly."

"Trap card, open! Ground Capture!" Aki exclaimed. "Your monster's attack is halved!"

The Archfiend gave a shriek as its attack points were cut in half, but that didn't stop it from pouncing on her and slashing her with its sharp talons. She flinched away from it, feeling its wings buffeting her as it leapt away again.

"Not the most effective dodge," said Divine. "I'd hoped to see more of you, Aki. I think we had better wrap this up quickly, don't you? Take your turn."

"Just this once, I'll agree with you," said Aki. "I play the trap card Wicked Rebirth! By paying eight hundred of my life points, I can bring Black Rose Dragon back from the grave!"

Divine looked unruffled. "Well played, but the dragon's attack points are still less than my Archfiend's."

"Then I'll use that," she said. "From my hand I activate the spell card Mark of the Rose! By removing a plant-type monster in my graveyard from play, I can equip this card to your monster and gain control of it for this turn... and that's all I need." She bowed her head. "I don't want to do this, but it has to be done. Thought Ruler Archfiend, attack."

An image of a blooming rose appeared on the Archfiend's forehead, glowing redly. It turned on Divine with a snarl, and Aki looked away.

"It's over," she said. "I win."

She finally mustered her courage enough to turn to look at him, to convince herself that he was truly dead. He was lying facedown on the ground, perfectly still. He didn't even seem to be breathing. His eyes were open, staring at nothing. Aki wanted to look away, but there was something that seemed off to her, something more than the fact that she was looking at a dead body. She felt like it was something important...

His cards were still on the field. She stared at them, feeling a creeping sense of dread run down her spine.

_What does that field spell do?_

Even as she watched, the card began to glow gently with a pale light. They played over Divine's body, shimmering on his hair and clothes. His fingers twitched. Very slowly, he raised his head and began pushing himself to his feet. He dusted his clothes off, as if he had done nothing more serious than trip. Aki remained motionless, frozen by the sight of a dead man getting up and walking. Then he raised his eyes to look at her.

"You really shouldn't have done that," he said.

"What are you doing? What just happened?" Aki demanded.

"My field spell card is in effect. When the Reincarnation Road is in effect, my life doesn't run out when I die. I can summon one monster, as long as I can meet its summoning requirements, and it becomes my avatar. And it happens that I have one monster in my deck, now, that is exactly suited to this occasion."

Something was happening on the field. Something small was wiggling there. A worm? No, it was a sprout, growing rapidly, putting out leaves one after another. Its stem was black, and the leaves had an unhealthy purple sheen to them. Aki recoiled.

"What is that?" she demanded.

"Now, now. That's no way to speak in the presence of a god," said Divine mildly. "This, you see, is a very special monster. When my life points reach zero, I can special summon Earthbound God Pachamuyu Sach'a. All the life points I lost are transferred to him - all four thousand of them."

There was a roar. The plant shot up, shredding the earth as roots unfurled in all directions and branches fountained to the sky. Aki was thrown off her feet, and had to scramble wildly to avoid being crushed by the writhing roots. She cowered on the ground with her arms over her head while bits of pavement and dirt rained down all around her. When the tumult stilled, she raised her head to see that a massive tree had sprouted in front of her. Its trunk was as wide as any office building, and its branches seemed to blot out the sky, leaving only a shifting network of purplish leaves. Perched on one of the arching aerial roots was Divine himself, watching her with a smile. It wasn't his usual charming smile, but a feral grin that showed too many teeth, and his eyes had a strange violet glow to them.

"What did you do?" Aki demanded.

"It would be better to ask what _you_ did," Divine answered. "This is your fault, you know. You caused this."

"I... I didn't..."

"You did," he insisted. "You were the one who killed me, Aki. You disobeyed my orders, and because of that, I died. It was your power and your disobedience that brought me to this. I have every right to take my revenge on you now."

"I didn't mean to hurt you," she protested.

Divine shook his head. "Do you think that matters? I'm still dead. My soul still belongs to Pachamuyu Sach'a. And I will still suffer tortures you can't imagine because of what you did. Do you think saying you didn't mean to do it is going to matter?"

"But... but I..."

"There is only one way to make this right," he continued. "Give up. Surrender yourself to the Earthbound Gods and take my place. You can still save me, if you want to. It's your choice, Aki. Are you going to leave me here to suffer, or will you set me free?"

"I..."

Aki hesitated, struggling with her loyalties. Everything within her said that her first duty was to Divine; that he had given everything to her and that she should repay him, even with her life, if necessary. And yet...

_What do you want to do?_ Yusei's voice seemed to whisper to her.

"I... I won't do it!" she said.

Divine looked at her blankly. "You won't?"

"No," said Aki. She began levering herself to her feet. "I didn't ask you to sell yourself to the Earthbound Gods. You chose that on your own. I didn't want to be trained to kill people, but you trained me to become a soldier. You shouldn't be surprised now that I'm doing what you taught me to do."

"Then you leave me no choice," said Divine. "It gives me no pleasure to see you die, but since I am commanded... Pachamuyu Sach'a, destroy the Black Rose Dragon."

The tree stirred, unearthing one of its massive roots and raising it ponderously into the air. It lashed out at the Black Rose Dragon, who met it with a roar of defiance. It exploded in a burst of green fire, which engulfed Pachamuyu Sach'a's root. The air was split by a screech that bordered on the supersonic. Aki winced; she had never imagined that a tree could scream. The root retreated and burrowed back under ground, looking scorched. Aki felt a little scorched, too, but she remained standing. Her two facedown cards had flipped face up.

"Your attack has activated my trap card," she said. "By the effects of Half-Counter, during During damage calculation, my dragon gained attack points equal to half your monster's attack points, which brought its total to forty-four hundred points."

"I take no damage," said Divine. "The god absorbs the damage for me. Its attack is reduced to thirty-six hundred. You still have nothing in your deck that powerful, and your dragon is gone."

"I'm not done yet," she said. "I still have my second card."

A little green sprout began probing and curling its way up from the ground behind her. Divine raised an eyebrow, his expression amused.

"Are you really going to try...?"

She nodded. "I called out a tree of my own."

The sprout wiggled its way into becoming a sapling. It spread out sticky green leaves, more and more of them, growing taller as it went. Soon it was tall enough to tower over the field, nearly as large as the demon tree. Its leaves glowed as though shafts of sunlight were beaming through it.

"This is The World Tree. Every time a plant-type monster is destroyed," she said, "my tree will gain a flower token."

"All of which will be utterly useless," said Divine. "My monster is immune to the effects of spells and traps. Unfortunately, I can't attack with any other monsters when Pachamuyu Sach'a is on the field, so I end my turn."

Aki nodded grimly and drew her next card.

_He's right. I don't know if I can get out of this. What difference does it make if I'm more powerful than him now? My abilities aren't going to get me out of this..._

A thought tickled her mind, and her gaze strayed towards the field spell card that was sitting innocently on the corner of Divine's playing area. She had never seen anything like it before. She wondered where exactly he'd gotten it.

_Can he use that effect twice?_ she wondered. If that card could be used to summon yet another monster in the unlikely event that she dealt with his Earthbound God, she doubted she would be able to survive another such encounter. As long as she wasn't fully certain what it could do, it was safer to be rid of it. Even if it didn't help her with the problem at hand, she felt ready at this point to do anything that would hinder Divine even a little bit.

"On my standby phase, Thought Ruler Archfiend returns to my side of the field because of the Mark of Rose," she said. "I'll sacrifice it to summon Rose Tentacles in defense mode."

The fiend vanished, to be replaced by a rose surrounded by a tangle of spiked vines. It wouldn't be nearly enough to protect her from the tree's attack, but for the moment, all she could do was stall. She set a trap card face-down and ended her turn.

"Are you determined to keep fighting, then?" Divine asked her. "Does it give you so much pleasure to keep hurting me?"

"Just play," she told him.

"Very well. If that's how it must be... Pachamuyu Sach'a, remove her monster."

The great tree's roots lashed out again. Aki flinched. Destroying a defense monster shouldn't have harmed her, but the sense of lurking menace was unnerving. The tree god was patient. It knew that with time, it could wear her defenses down bit by bit, as a tree's roots could crack a great stone. It was going to crack her and grind her to dust, one monster at a time.

"A activate my tree's effect," she said. "You've destroyed one of my plant type monsters, so I can add a flower counter."

A pale flower opened on the green tree, just above Aki's head. Its scent drifted down to her, soothing her. She didn't know how it could be that what should have been a hologram could have a scent, but she was grateful for the courage it gave her.

"I place a monster in defense mode," she said.

Divine shook his head sadly. "Don't think I don't know what you're trying. You want to use your World Tree's effect to destroy my god. It won't work. The Earthbound Gods are immune to the effects of spells and traps."

"I'm doing it anyway," she said.

"So rebellious," Divine murmured. "I have to wonder who you learned it from. Certainly not from me."

He gave another command, and the Botanical Lion Aki had set dissolved into sparks. The flailing root nearly struck Aki's face as it whipped past, and she flinched.

_Whatever I summon, the god will destroy it. All Divine has to do now is to draw a card that will let him do direct damage to me and he'll win. I don't know what I can do to stop him..._

Divine seemed to be having the same sorts of thoughts.

"You can't defeat a god," he said. "Even if by some miracle you could boost one of your monsters' attacks high enough to inflict damage, Pachamuyu Sach'a won't be destroyed. You can't use spells or traps against it. All you can do is keep summoning defense monsters until you run out. Join us voluntarily - it will be less painful for all of us."

Aki hesitated. It did seem hopeless. Maybe she had failed already. There was no monster in her deck strong enough to do that kind of damage, even if there hadn't been an eldritch tree in her path. Maybe it really was time to surrender...

Divine seemed to know what she was thinking. He gave her a reassuring smile and held out a hand to her, inviting her to come join her. She looked up reflexively to follow the motion, and she met his eyes.

It was the smile that did it. Something inside her responded to that smile - not with warmth, but with sudden anger. He was doing it again! Couldn't he stop trying to charm her, even when their lives were on the line? Didn't he _ever_ stop trying to meddle with her life?

_I can do what I want. My power is mine. No one should tell me what to do with my own gifts, or my deck, or my life. Not him, not anyone!_

She felt a sudden surge of power, and she glanced down to see that the dragon's birthmark on her arm was shining. It felt warm and comforting, and its light cut through the gloom cast by Pachamuyu Sach'a's leaves. For a brief instant, she felt herself connected to Yusei, to Jack, to Rua and Ruka, to someone whose name she didn't know, but who she knew instinctively was her ally in this fight. They were all bound together by these marks. She was not alone - she would never be alone again, as long as those marks existed. She looked back at Divine, and felt the last of her ties with him fall away. She didn't need him to guide her anymore.

"Not happening," she said. "My turn! I activate World Tree's effect. By removing two flower counters, I can destroy one spell or trap card on the field, and I choose to destroy your field spell!"

The spell card exploded into green sparks. Divine suddenly looked a bit green too. He looked desperately at the space of empty air where his card had been, and then up at the Earthbound God. It was shaking as though a high wind was blowing through it. One of its strange purple leaves detached itself and blew away into the night. More followed, and still more, whirling away like a flock of startled crows, until there was nothing left but bare branches. The empty branches made the tree look withered and sickly next to Aki's vibrant World Tree. Aki looked at it and realized she had no fear of it anymore, just as she no longer feared its human pawn.

She was going to destroy it.

"Now I play my trap card, Overdoom Line! Any monsters I special summon from the graveyard this turn will gain one thousand attack points. Next, I play Monster Reborn to summon Black Rose Dragon!"

White light flared, bright enough that even Pachamuyu Sach'a's black trunk looked pale in its light. The dragon emerged, flaring its petals and bellowing a battle cry. Aki smiled faintly.

_Thank you, Papa._

"Now, I'll equip Thorn of Malice," she continued, "to raise my dragon's attack to four thousand points!"

The Black Rose Dragon breathed out a stream of flames. They engulfed the tree, making its branches wither and its bark steam. The earth shook as the World Tree burned and collapsed. She closed her eyes and waited for it to be over.

When the sound quieted, Aki looked up again. There was no tree, no cards, only Divine lying sprawled in the dust. She walked over to him and looked at him. She had expected to feel something - grief, guilt, regret. Instead, she felt tired. He had taken everything she had to give him, and offered nothing in return, and now she was empty of all feelings for him. She watched him as his body crumbled into black dust.

"Don't tell me what to do," she said, and turned to walk away.

Not far away, the control tower loomed. She approached it automatically and placed her card in the slot. The machine gave a rumble, and she had just enough presence of mind to snatch up her dragon and make a run for it. A dozen yards away, he paused and looked back to see the tower simply fold itself up and sink into the earth.

_Well, that's done,_ she thought. _Now what?_ She had won, of course. Presumably she had done what she'd been sent there to do: defeated a Dark Signer and hopefully prevented the end of the world from coming to pass. It felt like such an empty victory, though...

Her attention was caught by the distant sound of an engine, its soft sound strangely piercing in the otherwise silent city. Aki turned towards the sound, and a moment or two later, she saw the bright red shape of Yusei's D-Wheel moving against the dull gray landscape. Within seconds, he had pulled up next to her.

"Are you all right?" he asked, as he removed his helmet. "I saw the lights in the sky."

"Divine and I dueled," she admitted.

"I take it you won."

Aki bowed her head. "He won't bother anyone again."

Yusei stood and went to lay a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"You did well," he said. "I'm proud of you. You see, I told you that you could do it."

She mustered a weak smile. "I know. I remembered." She raised her eyes to meet his. "Thank you. I couldn't have done it alone."

"You did do it alone," he pointed out. "Unless there's someone else here..."

"That's not what I mean," she said. "I felt it, for an instant - we were all connected through these marks. You and me and Rua and Ruka and Jack... and someone else, too. I saw him."

"The fifth Signer?" Yusei asked. He looked immensely relieved. "That's good news. I hope he gets here soon."

As if on cue, there was a rumble in the distance. Both Yusei and Aki looked towards it expectantly, but it was only a pair of jeeps, driven by Mikage and Ushio. The twins were napping in the back seat of one of the vehicles, apparently dead to the world.

"What are you two doing way out here?" was Ushio's greeting.

"Dueling Dark Signers, apparently," said Yusei. "Aki was, at least. I haven't found any yet. Have you?"

"These two did," said Mikage, gesturing at the sleeping twins. "You wouldn't believe it, but they each took one out by themselves."

"No wonder they look exhausted," said Aki. "That must have been hard on them."

"They're some tough little kids, that's for sure," Ushio agreed. "To tell the truth, I didn't think they had in them."

"So that's three Dark Signers down," Yusei mused. "I wonder how many are left? Was there one for each Signer? Or will they keep coming at us for as long as the gods can find vessels? I wish Goodwin had told us more..."

"We'll just have to deal with things as they come up," said Mikage briskly. "Look at it this way: we're making good progress. We've shut down two towers already. There are two more to go - possibly less than that. We don't know what the others are doing."

"Then we had better go find them," said Yusei. "And our missing Signer, whoever he is."

"There's more of you guys?" asked Ushio. "Huh. Well, guess we'd better hit the road, then."

Aki nodded and moved to sit next to Mikage. Yusei returned to his D-Wheel and slipped his helmet back on. Aki gave a little sigh of relief as she settled into her seat, tilting her head back and closing her eyes. She wished she was relaxed enough to sleep like Rua and Ruka, but her mind was still too full of thoughts to let her rest. Instead, she merely listened to the sounds of the engines running and relaxed in the knowledge that she was surrounded by friends. It was a novel experience. She realized suddenly that she wanted to win this fight - not because it was the right thing to do, not even because the world would end she didn't, but because she wanted the time to get to know these people.

_It will be nice to have friends,_ she thought. She smiled a little. _Even if they pick the strangest ways to get acquainted._

* * *

Rex's dreams were dark. Always, he had dreamed in vivid color and detail, but now he dreamed of wandering through shadows, being menaced by things he couldn't see. He struggled to wake up, but he couldn't seem to remember what being awake was like or how to do it anymore. The dreams had a physical weight that dragged him down, further from the waking world and deeper into the realms of sleep. After a while, it became hard to remember why he'd even wanted to wake up...

"Asleep on the job?" said a voice somewhere. "That won't do at all. This isn't a good place to sleep, and you have more important things you need to be doing."

He felt someone touch his cheek. It was a gentle touch - a woman's hand, smooth and soft. His dark world was penetrated by the sweet scent of honeysuckle perfume. He stirred a little, but the effort exhausted him, and he fell still again.

"Come on, Rexie. Wakey-wakey! Sleepy-time is over! It's time to rise and shine!"

Rex bridled. Who would dare speak to him that way, as though he were a child? Anger gave him the strength to wrench his eyes open and glare at whoever was who thought they could patronize him.

The shock of what he saw was enough to make him sit up the rest of the way.

"Keiko?" he exclaimed.

She laughed. "Hello, Rex. It's good to see you again."

He stared at her, uncomprehending. Fudo Keiko, the professor's wife, the darling of the lab, the woman who'd mothered him and everyone else well before she'd ever had a child of her own.

"You... am I dead?"

"No," she said, turning serious. "Not yet. But you're close - close enough that I can speak to you now. Besides, my know-it-all husband wasn't having much success with you, so I thought I might step in."

Rex raised an eyebrow. "Husband? I thought marriage was only till death do you part."

"We're not parted," said Keiko, smiling. "That would only happen if we had gone in different directions. But I'm not here to talk to you about death. It's too soon for that. Get up. Walk. You need to keep moving so you don't fall asleep again."

Goodwin nodded. There did seem to be an inertia about the place; already he could feel his limbs going numb again, his eyelids becoming heavy. With Keiko's help, he was able to push himself to his feet and begin a slow but steady walk.

"Talk to me," he said. "Give me something to focus on. If I'm not dead, where am I?"

"This is part of the underworld," Keiko replied. "A sort of limbo - the edge between life and death. If you stay too long here, you _will_ die."

"How long is too long?"

"My data on that is a bit imprecise," she admitted. "Most people aren't flung in here headlong while they're still alive. I'm hoping you have until the end of the night, anyway."

"After that, it won't matter," he replied.

"Exactly," Keiko replied. "But before that, it matters immensely. Yusei and his friends will be here soon. They're going to need some help."

He gave her a skeptical look. "And you expect me to help them?"

"Hatori is busy, and I can only do so much. I'm breaking a few rules just by being here now," she said. "You're not much, but you're all we've got."

"Thank you so much for that vote of confidence."

She stepped quickly in front of him, looking up into his eyes. "Please. The world needs your help."

"I tried being helpful. I wasn't good at it," said Goodwin.

"Try again," Keiko urged. "Rex, I know you. You really believed in creating a better future for people, once. That's why you went to work on the MIDS project. It's why you tried to build the bridge. It's why you chose to become the Director. Are you really going to give up after you've come all this way?"

"I have done enough," he declared. "I have rebuilt this city and turned it into a utopia. I have gathered the Signers and put them on the path to saving the world. For seventeen years, I have been putting the world's interests above my own. I am tired beyond the point where I can care anymore. I am going to have what I want for a change."

Keiko looked at him, her head cocked in that birdlike way that meant she was giving something the full benefit of her concentration.

"And what is it you really want?" she asked.

"I want..." He let his shoulders slump, the fight going out of him. "I want to wake up and find out the last seventeen years have been a bad dream. I want everything to go back to the way it was. And I want my brother back."

"Oh, Rex, you poor boy," said Keiko.

She put her arms around him in a motherly hug - no small feat, given that she was a head shorter than him, but she managed it. It dawned on him suddenly that he was _older_than her now; that she would always be a vibrant young woman and he was gray-haired and tired. He didn't try to escape her embrace.

"You're right, you have done a lot," she said. "I'm sorry. I know how it feels, to be apart from a loved one..."

_Yusei. She's talking about him..._

Roughly, Rex pushed her away. He didn't want to hear how much she'd missed her child. Yusei had been only a squalling baby when she'd died; she had barely had time to get attached to him. Rudger had been the cornerstone of his world for his entire life. How could a single useless child compare to that? He knew it was wrong to feel that way and didn't care. He began to walk way again, half expecting Keiko to chase after him, but she stayed where she was.

"There's still a chance," she said.

Goodwin stopped. "A chance for what?"

"To help your brother. To make things right," said Keiko. "It's not the way you wanted, and it might not work, but..."

"There is still a chance?"

"That's what I came to tell you." He paused. He had honestly not believed that any chances were left. Truth be told, he might not have really believed that there was a chance when the Yliasters had told him that there was all those years ago. It had simply been something to do because he wasn't dead yet. They weren't the kind of people he could trust. He thought he could trust Keiko, though. Even if he couldn't, well... he was already dead. What did he have left to lose?

"All right," said Goodwin. He drew a deep breath and let it out. "Let's hear it."

**To Be Continued...**


	30. Jack Spreads His Wings

**_Note:_** Once again, I'd like to thank Gin no Ryuu for helping me sort out my mistakes. Also, once again, one of these monsters is my own invention, name, effects, and all. I apologize for the long delay in posting. Future chapters should go up much more quickly from here on in.

**Jack Spreads His Wings**

**By: SilvorMoon**

_What am I doing here?_

That was the thought that went through Carly's mind as she watched the scenery rush past her. Somehow, her time in journalism school or even her brief stint in prison had not prepared her for riding through an urban wasteland in search of ancient Incan death gods. She hadn't even been practicing her dueling for very long. The Duel Disk strapped to her arm felt clumsy and uncomfortable, and she found herself wondering if she would actually be able to do anything to help when the time came.

_I should have stayed home and let Jack handle this..._

She pressed her face against his back, closing her eyes and trying to derive some comfort from his presence, breathing in his scent - sweat and leather, machine oil and D-Wheel exhaust, and a hint of the coffee he loved so much. In her mind, there was no better scent in the world. His body felt warm and solid and reassuring against hers.

_No, I couldn't have stayed behind,_she decided. She would have gone crazy worrying about what would become of Jack if she let him go alone. Even if there was nothing she could do to help, she still wanted to be here to watch it unfold.

And if something _did_ start messing with Jack, she might just find the courage to take whatever it was apart with her bare hands.

She was still forming that thought when she became of an uneasy sensation pricking at the back of her neck. She prodded Jack's shoulder.

"Jack, Jack, stop the bike!" she ordered.

"What for?" he demanded, but he slowed to a halt anyway.

"There's someone watching us!" Carly said.

Jack looked around. They were paused amid a few shattered buildings, some of them still mostly whole. Their windows were dark. There was no sign of life anywhere.

"You have an overactive imagination," Jack said. "There's no one out here but us."

"No, I'm sure there was someone," Carly insisted.

She looked around, silently cursing the darkness and her own poor vision. At last, she caught a flicker of movement, and she pointed.

"Up there, see?"

Jack looked. There was a figure perched on top of one of the relatively sound buildings, his dark cloak and hood making him nearly invisible against the black sky. However, he seemed to realize that he was being watched, and stepped a little closer to the edge so he could be more clearly seen. Very slowly, he pushed his hood back so that his face was visible. A flash of lightning briefly illuminated his features. Carly gasped, and Jack swore. The cloaked figure stared down at them a moment longer, then very deliberately turned and pointed to something off in the distance. He held the pose for a moment, making sure they got the message, then turned and vanished into the shadows. _Literally_ vanished, Carly realized with a chill - first he had been there, and then he had simply melted into mist.

"Tell me you just saw that," said Jack. There was a tremor in his voice that Carly had never heard before.

"Yuji," she said. "That was Yuji! How could it be him? He's dead! But he was... different..."

"He was walking," said Jack. "Without his cane."

"Something is weird here," said Carly.

"I figured that out when I was dueling the possessed Security officer," said Jack. He revved the D-Wheel and started forward. "But I don't like it happening to my friends."

"That couldn't have been him," said Carly. "It's got to be a... a trick or something. Yuji _can't_ be one of those Dark Signers. He can't! They said that the Dark Signers are people who died wanting revenge, but Yuji wouldn't want revenge on anybody. He even forgave Saiga for crashing and getting him hurt. Why would he come back?"

"I don't know," said Jack, "but I plan to ask as soon as I find him."

"You aren't going to duel him, are you?" asked Carly uneasily.

"If I have to."

"But... won't he die or something if you do?"

"He's already dead. I can't kill him any more than he already is."

Carly flinched. "How can you be so cold?"

"Because I have to be," said Jack. "Look, if he's joined them, then he isn't Yuji anymore - it's just one of those Earthbound Gods wearing his skin. The best thing we can do for him is to stop them from dishonoring his memory."

"But..." said Carly, and then stopped. She knew Jack was right, but she didn't _feel_ like he was right.

Jack altered his course slightly, angling in the direction Yuji had been pointing. He was moving more slowly than he had been before, and Carly wondered why. Was he more nervous about meeting his friend than he let on? Then again, he might just be trying to make sure he didn't miss anything. After a time, they came to what had apparently once been a high school stadium, its edges crumbled like the Coliseum. As they passed it, the mark on Jack's arm began to glow a vivid red. He skidded to a halt and looked up at the stadium. Then he shrugged and drove his D-Wheel straight into the building. Carly gave a squeak and clung to him, but she need not have worried. The glass front doors had long since been demolished, and he had a clear path through the front corridor onto the playing field. He drove to the middle of the field and stopped, waiting. The night was very still. Carly had a sudden realization that there was nothing at all moving for miles around but her, Jack, and something that wasn't quite alive anymore.

Even as she had that thought, a person came striding out onto the field. Carly yelped and clutched more tightly to Jack.

"So," said a voice. "You made it here."

Jack's eyes narrowed. "Saiga. So, this is how you ended up."

"No thanks to you," Saiga replied.

"You made your choice when you asked me to leave you," said Jack. "Anything that happened after that is your problem."

"What did you do to Yuji?" Carly demanded.

Saiga gave her a surprised look. "What makes you think I did anything to him?"

"I saw him!" she said. "We both did! He was on top of the building!"

Saiga looked annoyed. "Now, what does he think he's doing..."

"You must have done something," Carly persisted. "He was dead! I saw him die, and now he's not!"

"Of course I did something!" Saiga snapped. "They offered me the chance and I took it! What did you want me to do?"

Jack gave him a narrow look. "You joined this outfit to bring him back to life?"

"I had to!" said Saiga. "It was the only choice."

"Somehow I don't believe it," said Jack.

"What do you know about it?" Saiga snapped. "I did what I had to do to save him. You'd have done the same thing in my place."

"Maybe I would," Jack said. "But you're the one who did it. I can't let it pass by."

"That's rich," Saiga scoffed. "_Now_ you want to be a big damn hero. You were just fine fooling around trying to make yourself famous before. Fat lot of good it's going to do, changing your mind now."

"It might save the world," Jack replied.

"It's too late for me to care."

"Both of you, stop it!"

Carly flung herself between the two of them, arms outstretched as if preventing them from lunging at each other. The two men stared at her in surprise.

"Just stop it, okay?" Carly said. "You two are friends. You shouldn't be fighting like this. Can't we just - just go somewhere and - and talk about this?"

"The time for talking is past," said Jack. "I can't let anyone else get hurt. Saiga's right about one thing - I had a responsibility to prevent this, and I failed. It's time for me to do something."

"He's right," said Saiga. "I suggest you get out of the way."

Carly shook her head vigorously.

"You aren't keeping me out of this!" she said. "If you're going to fight, then I'll fight, too!"

"Don't even think about it!" Jack snapped. "It's too dangerous."

"I'm not letting you do this alone!"

"You idiot, you're just going to be a liability! Stay out of the way where you won't get hurt!"

"I will not! What if you get hurt? I can't just stand here and watch!"

"Do you think getting hurt yourself is going to make things any better? What do you think you're going to do, protect me? With what?"

"I'll think of something!"

Saiga watched the two of them argue, looking bemused and more than a little frustrated.

"Don't you two ever quit?" he exclaimed.

The shadows rippled and parted, and suddenly Yuji was among them. Carly was startled enough to stop arguing with Jack long enough to turn and look at him. He was definitely Yuji, but there was something not right about him. It wasn't just that his scars were gone, or that he moved smoothly without the aid of his cane. It wasn't even that his warm brown eyes had gone strangely dark. It was the look on his face that bothered Carly the most. Yuji had always been so open and cheerful, full of chatter and quick to laugh. Now his expression was simply blank, registering no emotion at all. He looked, she thought, as though he had moved so far beyond despair that he'd given up even trying to feel anything. He met her eyes briefly, and she shivered.

"Let her help," he said quietly. "It will be fair that way. Two against two."

Saiga gave him a surprised look. "You're going to duel?"

"I think it's a requirement," said Yuji. He touched his arm gingerly, where a bright orange mark burned, an image of a long-legged beast, and winced a little as though it pained him. Saiga looked guiltily away.

"Fine. Two on two, then," he said. "Each player has four thousand life points, and we take alternating turns - one person from one team, one on the other, then back again. You can use card effects on your partner same as you would for yourself. We play until one team loses both players. Clear?"

"Clear," said Jack. "Come on, Carly. Let's see how well you've learned from me."

Carly flushed. "I haven't had much practice yet - I don't even have the right kind of deck for riding duels! I'm not sure I..."

"You wanted to help, so help!"

Carly shut up and got onto the bike. Jack climbed on in front of her and gave her a quick look over his shoulder.

"Everything will be fine," he said. "Listen. We need to talk strategy."

Carly tried not to make a face. Here they were, facing possible death, perhaps with only these last few moments to spend together, and Jack wanted to talk cards.

"What kind of strategy?" she asked.

"I don't want you to worry too much about attacking. Leave that to me," he said. "I have more than enough attack power for both of us, so focus your energy on defense. If you have to attack, don't go after Saiga - aim for Yuji."

"Why him?" she asked. "None of this is his fault..."

"This isn't about whose fault it is," Jack snapped. "This is about making sure you and I both get out of this alive. Of the two of them, Saiga is the stronger duelist. Yuji has a good mind for tactics, but he's too soft. A duelist has to be ruthless."

"So if Saiga's the bigger threat, shouldn't we go after him?" asked Carly.

"No," said Jack. "We aim for Yuji because Saiga will do anything to protect him, even at the cost of his own life."

Carly felt a bit sick. To manipulate her friend like that, to play with Yuji's life...

"Maybe I will just stick to defense," she said.

"Good," Jack replied. "Because when they attack, they'll come after you."

"Why me?" she asked.

"Because," said Jack, as he revved his engine, "you will always be my weakness."

And before she could say anything else, he opened the throttle on his D-Wheel and roared into the night, and Carly had all she could do to hang on.

A moment later, two D-Wheels pulled up to them on either side. They were identical, hulking black machines with orange stripes and patterns that glowed dully, as though embers were smoldering beneath the paint. Yuji drove with the hood of his cloak raised, leaving his face hidden in its shadow. Saiga shot them a quick, sharp look before glancing quickly away again. Jack ignored both of them, instead activating the Speed World spell to begin the game.

Then he gave an exclamation of surprise, and Carly yelped. The moment the card had gone into play, a shaft of bright light sprung up from the earth, creating a wall of blue flames that extended out in front and behind them, forming a long winding track.

"This again?" Jack exclaimed. "Don't you people ever come up with any new tricks?"

"We go with what works," said Saiga. "Let's get this over with. I'll go first."

"Take the first move, then," Jack replied. "You'll need the advantage."

Saiga glowered at him and drew his first card.

"I summon Machina Soldier," he declared. "Its special effect lets me special summon a second Machina Monster, so I summon Machina Sniper. As long as this monster is on the field, no other monsters but Machina Sniper can be attacked. I set a card face-down and end my turn."

He let himself fall behind, and Yuji accelerated, taking the lead. His hood was pulled over his face again, hiding his expression.

"My turn," he said. His voice was almost inaudible over the rush of the wind and the roar of the engines. I play Machina Gearframe, and set one card face-down."

He set the cards in place, his motions mechanical, and dropped back into last place again. Carly watched him closely, certain that he was purposely avoiding meeting anyone's eyes.

"They're playing the same type of deck," Jack muttered.

"Is that good or bad?" Carly asked.

"Puts us at a disadvantage," he said. "Their cards will be designed to support each other. I've barely even seen your deck. I'm not sure yet how we're going to make our cards work together."

"You'll figure something out," she said. "Nobody's a better duelist than you. You can get us through this. I trust you."

Jack nodded. "Let's do this, then. My turn!"

He whipped out a card with professional flair and inspected it. He nodded briskly.

"I summon Big Piece Golem," he said. "When I have no other monsters on the field, I can summon this without a sacrifice. Golem, attack Machina Gearframe!"

With surprising speed, the stone giant lumbered across the field and slammed its fist down on Yuji's monster, reducing it to scrap metal. Yuji gave a bellow of pain, and his bike wobbled and nearly went off the path. Saiga exclaimed, and Carly shrieked.

"Stop that," Jack scolded her. "This is a duel - people are going to get hurt."

"But he's our friend!" she protested.

"That doesn't matter now!"

"But..."

Jack glared at her. "Just take your turn!"

"Oh. Right," she said. Carly drew a card, fumbled, and nearly dropped it. She heard Jack make a noise of frustration, and she quickly turned her attention to her dueling. "My turn! Um... I set one monster face down, and, um... I set this card, too. Turn end."

"You're not even trying, are you?" Saiga accused.

"Leave her alone," Jack snapped. "Why are you complaining? Do you _want _her to win?"

"Maybe I just have enough pride left to want an opponent who doesn't roll over and let me win," Saiga snapped.

"I'm doing the best I can, okay?" Carly protested, but nobody listened to her.

"My turn," said Saiga. "Don't expect me to go easy on you because you're going easy on me. I summon Scrap Recycler. By its effect, I can send one monster from my field to the graveyard to return up to two monsters from my grave to the deck and draw one card. Then I'll equip the Machina Gearframe to my Scrap Recycler."

The robot waiting on Yuji's side of the field bounded across the path to attach itself to Saiga's monster.

"When Machina Gearframe is equipped to a monster, that monster can't be destroyed," said Saiga. "Okay, Scrap Recycler - attack Carly's facedown."

The little machine trundled forwards to slam into Carly's monster. She had a brief image of a young woman in pale colors, who shrieked in pain before vanishing.

"I activate my trap card!" said Carly. "Fortune Inherit! When one of my Fortune Ladies is destroyed, I can summon two more! I summon Fortune Lady Watery and Fortune Lady Windy!"

Jack gave a grunt of approval. "Not bad."

"Tch, whatever," said Saiga. "Turn end."

Yuji drew a card and appeared to contemplate his empty field for a moment.

"I play this monster in face-down defense mode," he said. "Turn end."

"Now who's not putting up a fight?" Jack accused.

He sounded rather smug; Carly thought he was expecting to punch through Yuji's defenses easily. Carly wasn't so certain. Just as he'd set that card, she thought she'd seen Yuji give Saiga a significant glance.

_They must have a plan. This must be something they've done a thousand times before. I wish I'd thought to read more about their dueling when I had the chance..._

"My turn," said Jack. "I summon Small Piece Golem. If I summon this card when I control a Big Piece Golem, I can special summon Mid Piece Golem. Then I give up two speed counters to use the speed spell Speed Fusion! I fuse my three monsters to form Multi Piece Golem!"

With a great sound of grinding stone, the golems came together to form a single massive stone giant. It loomed over the battlefield like a mountain, dwarfing the players and their bikes. Carly marveled at it. It seemed impossible that anyone could stand up to such a creature.

"I attack Yuji's facedown," Jack declared. "Go, Golem!"

The giant lumbered forward, its footfalls making the earth shake. It stomped down on the face-down card, sending up a spray of metal pieces and a great cloud of smoke. Yuji bore the attack stolidly.

"I activate my monster's flip effect," he said. "I can add one Commander Covington from my deck to my hand."

Jack hissed in annoyance.

"Set up," he muttered. "I set a card face down. Turn end."

Carly turned her attention to her cards, her mind whirling. Already she felt that this duel was getting out of her league. Saiga and Yuji were clearly planning something, and she had no idea what it was. Jack was already summoning monsters with power levels far beyond anything she was capable of mustering. And these were her _friends_- she didn't want to be fighting with them. How could she bring herself to do anything she knew would kill someone she cared about?

"I put both my monsters in defense mode," she said. "Turn end."

Jack glared at her. "What are you doing? Yuji's totally unprotected - you had a clear shot!"

"You told me to defend myself first!" she protested.

"I didn't mean for you to pass up a perfectly good opportunity!" said Jack.

"Too late now," said Saiga. "She's already made her choice. My turn." He flicked out a card. "I'll play Machina Defender, and attack one of those defense monsters."

Carly shrieked as his robot descended on her and blasted her Fortune Lady Windy to smithereens. Even though it hadn't cost her any life points, just the force of the blast was enough that she had to cling tightly to Jack to keep from being thrown off the bike, and she felt him swerve slightly to keep his D-Wheel upright.

"That's all," said Saiga. "Turn end."

"That's all you're doing?" asked Jack.

"That's all I need," Saiga replied. "Take it, Yuji."

Yuji nodded silently.

"I summon Commander Covington," he said. "By its effect, I can send Machina Soldier, Machina Sniper, and Machina Defender to the graveyard to summon Machina Force."

Covington made a gesture of command, and Saiga's monsters obediently trooped off the field and vanished. The commander then flung out a hand, and a circle of light opened on the ground - a _huge_ circle. With a great rumble of engines, a monstrous heap of metal began rising up onto the field, a metal soldier with shoulder mounted cannons big enough that the Wheel of Fortune could have easily rolled down their barrels without scraping their sides. Carly swallowed hard, and even Jack seemed to go a little pale.

"I pay one thousand life points," said Yuji, "to have Machina Force attack Jack's Multi Piece Golem."

With a whine of pneumatics, Machina Force took careful aim at Jack's monster. Jack gritted his teeth.

"Hang on," he said. "This is going to hurt."

In the next instant, there was a hum as the cannons started charging energy. Then there was a blast of heat and light so powerful that Carly was sure she would burn alive. She screamed, but she couldn't hear herself over the sound of the explosion.

_It's all over,_ she thought wildly. _We can't take another hit like this..._

Jack was breathing heavily; Carly could feel the effort he was making to keep himself together.

"I activate Multi Piece Golem's effect," he said. "When this card is attacked, I can return it to my extra deck, and re-summon its components from the graveyard. I bring back Small Piece Golem, Mid Piece Golem, and Big Piece Golem."

_Amazing,_ Carly thought. _Even after something like that, he can bounce back. Maybe I won't have to do anything after all..._

"Next, I summon Battle Resonator," Jack continued, "and I tune it to Mid Piece Golem and Small Piece Golem! The ruler's heartbeats will now file through here. Bear witness to their creation-shaking power! Come forth, my soul - Red Daemon's Dragon!"

The three monsters dissolved into stars, swirling points of bright light in the darkness. As Carly watched, they clustered together, becoming too bright to look at. Then there was a rush of flame, and the white points of light became a raging fire, and from the fire emerged a massive red dragon. It roared, flaring its black wings and throwing back its horned head. Carly could see Saiga working to keep his expression neutral, but the tense muscles in his jaw gave him away.

"You can't win with that," he said. "Machina Force has forty-six thousand attack points. That dragon of yours doesn't come anywhere close."

"My dragon can handle anything you can dish out," Jack boasted. "I play the spell card Half Seize! I can take away half of Machina Force's attack points and add them to my life points!"

Machina Force gave a metallic groan as parts of its weapons crumbled away. Jack, however, sat up a little straighter a nimbus of light flared briefly around him.

"Let this be a lesson to you," he said. "Never try to out-power Jack Atlus. Red Daemon's Dragon, attack that machine!"

The Red Daemon's Dragon took a breath and spat plumes of green flame over the battlefield. Yuji and Saiga swerved out of the way to avoid the rush of heat, but the Machina Force wasn't so lucky. It caught the blast full-force and shattered.

"I activate Machina Force's special effect," said Yuji. "When this monster is destroyed, the monsters used to form it can be re-summoned from the graveyard."

Jack scowled. "You're copying my strategies."

"We were doing this long before you came on the scene," said Saiga. "Don't blame us if your strategies are old news."

"Maybe you've been using them," said Jack. "I've been perfecting them. From where I stand, you've just given me more targets. Big Piece Golem, attack the Machina Defender!"

The Golem lumbered across the field to crush the Defender into scrap metal. Jack nodded in satisfaction.

"One down," he said. "Due to Red Daemon's Dragon's effect, Big Piece Golem is destroyed at the end of my turn, but I still have enough firepower to deal with these small fry."

Carly was only half paying attention to the banter. Normally, she would have been hanging on to his every word, but this wasn't an ordinary occasion, and at least part of her mind was occupied with trying to work out what was going on. From the moment she had made up her mind to become a reporter, she had trained herself to be observant, to notice the things that others missed, and now she was noticing something peculiar.

_This isn't like other duels,_ she was thinking. _And it isn't just that the attacks hurt when they hit. Something about the way they're acting..._

It was the way they were talking to each other. It didn't seem to matter whose monsters were in play - Saiga was doing all the talking, and Yuji was simply... there. He said nothing more than was required to summon and command his monsters, speaking with no inflection, evidently not even taking an interest in the proceedings. She turned a little, trying to meet his eyes.

Yuji noticed her. He accelerated so that his bike drew level with Jack's. Just for one moment, he turned so that she was looking beyond his hood, straight into his eyes. The pain she saw there went straight to her heart.

_Help me, _he mouthed, and then wheeled away again before she could respond. She didn't think either of the others had noticed.

_But what can I do to help? _she wondered. She wasn't much of a duelist - she wasn't even much of a reporter, and that was what she did best. And she didn't want to hurt anyone...

_He's in pain._That much was a certainty. She had seen it in his eyes, even before he'd begged for help. He didn't want to be doing this. What had he said earlier? "I think it's a requirement." Whatever was reanimating him now, it was controlling him, forcing him to turn on his friends whether he wanted to or not. And if he won...

_He'll be like this forever. He can't even get out of this by dying. He's going to belong to that Earthbound God thing forever..._ She looked back at him, a forlorn figure in his long black cloak, with his head bowed and shoulders hunched. _Unless we free him._

She took a breath. This wasn't about fighting to save a friend's life. Jack was right - Yuji and Saiga were already dead. There was nothing she could do to change that. What she could do was make the difference between letting them rest in peace, or leaving them in unending slavery. She could do it, if she chose to fight.

"My turn," she said. She drew her card. Jack must have felt the change in her, because he turned to glance at her over his shoulder, and she gave him a slight nod.

"I sacrifice Fortune Lady Watery to summon Fortune Lady Darky!" she said.

Her defense monster vanished with a splash, and in her place, shadows gathered and coalesced into a violet-clad woman.

"Okay, time to fight back!" she said. "Attack Yuji's Commander Covington!"

The Fortune Lady brandished her staff, and a bolt of dark energy struck Commander Covington and shattered him to pieces.

"Glad to see you're finally taking this seriously," said Jack.

"I'm totally serious!" she agreed. "I'll set one card facedown and end my turn."

Saiga watched her grimly. "Do you really think you know what you're doing?"

"I know exactly what I'm doing," she said. "I'm helping."

"You're not helping anything," he snapped. "And you've forgotten one thing."

She blinked. "What's that?"

"Yuji and I play the same deck."

"What has that got to do with..."

Jack snarled. "Damn it!"

"What?" Carly asked. "What's happening?"

"Don't you get it?" he said. "They're going to do it again!"

"Uh-oh," she said.

"I summon Commander Covington," he said. "And I use his special effect to summon my Machina Force!"

"Stupid," Jack muttered. "You should have just stayed in defense mode."

"You said a minute ago that you were glad I was taking this seriously!" Carly said.

"I changed my mind!"

The Machina Force reappeared on the battlefield, its cannons trained directly at Carly's Fortune Lady. She stared back calmly, and so did Carly.

"This is the end," said Saiga. "Machina Force, attack Carly's monster."

The cannons began to charge, building power. Then they released with a colossal roar.

"Trap Card, open!" Carly shouted. "Fortune Slip! My monster is removed from play until the end phase!"

Fortune Lady Darky flourished her staff and disappeared into the shadows.

"Turn, turn, turn!" Carly urged, pounding on Jack's shoulder.

"I'm turning!"

Jack swerved, and the blast shot past both of them and struck the ground harmlessly. Carly heaved a sigh of relief as Jack straightened up his D-Wheel and continued on his path.

"You could have warned me you were going to do that," he said.

"Just trust me," she said. "I can do this. I really can."

Jack turned slightly to meet her eyes. "You're sure?"

"It's just like when we were practicing together," she said. "I know this one."

For a moment, he looked uncertain. Then he gave a grunt of assent.

"I'll cover you, then," he said. "I hope you know what you're doing."

"Me too," she said.

Saiga scowled at both of them. He was too far away to hear what they were saying, but he clearly wasn't pleased that they'd dodged his attack.

"You can't do that forever," he said. "Turn end. Yuji?"

Yuji regarded the playing field seriously for a moment.

"I pass," he said.

"What?" Saiga yelped. "Yuji, what do you think you're doing?"

"I pass," he said again. "I... I'm sorry, Saiga. I just... I can't do this. Don't make me."

"But Yuji, if you don't..."

"I know," said Yuji. "Forgive me. Please."

"Yuji, no! You can't do this!" Saiga begged. "You can't leave me like this..."

"I can't live like this, either," said Yuji quietly. He turned to meet Jack's gaze. "Your move."

"Right," said Jack. "Let's put an end to this farce. Red Daemon's Dragon, attack directly!"

"No!" Saiga shouted.

It was too late. Flames washed over the field. They blasted Yuji's hood away from his face, and he turned towards them as though enjoying the warmth. The heat of the flames dried the tears on his cheeks. Carly had time to see him mouth the words, _Thank you,_ before his body turned to dark sand and blew away on the wind. His D-Wheel, riderless, spun out of control and crashed. Saiga gave a howl of agony.

"No! How could you do this?" he demanded.

"You hurt him," said Carly quietly. "You forced him to turn against his friends. You knew he would never want to do this."

"It was the only way to save his life!"

"Well, he obviously didn't want it," said Jack. "It was his choice. You can't force him to live just to make you happy."

"Then there's no point in me being alive, either!" Saiga declared. His eyes blazed, going suddenly from black to a firey orange. His voice dropped several octaves as he said, "Except to get my revenge on you!"

"Uh-oh," said Carly. "That... doesn't look good."

"Do you still feel ready to do this yourself?" Jack asked her.

"I have to," she said. "It's my turn."

"Do you really think you can win this?" Saiga asked. "You can't destroy a monster like this with a deck full of fluttering fairies."

Carly said nothing. If anything, the taunts helped to clear her mind. She would have felt bad about hurting someone she thought of as a friend, but it was clear that whatever was looking at her with those glowing orange eyes, it wasn't her friend Saiga. She wouldn't feel sorry for this creature if it were destroyed. She drew her card.

"I summon Solitaire Magician," she declared. "Once per turn, I can pick a monster on your side of the field and a Fortune Lady on my side of the field, and lower her level by three. If I do that, your monster is destroyed!"

"What?"

Saiga stared in disbelief as a tiny magician appeared on the field, a creature that looked like little more than a boy clutching a jeweled staff. Fortune Lady Darky raised her rod and passed a glowing burst of energy to him, and the Solitaire Magician brandished his staff and blasted the Machina Destroyer. The robot vanished in a burst of blue sparks.

"That's not possible!" Saiga said. "A monster that powerful..."

"I'm not done," said Carly. "I play the spell card Time Passage! For this turn only, my Fortune Lady Darky's level rises by three. And since her attack points increase by four hundred for every level she gains, that means an extra twelve hundred attack points!"

Violet light coalesced around Fortune Lady Darky. She snapped to attention and gave her staff a flourish.

"All right!" said Carly. "Attack his Commander Covington!"

The Fortune Lady sprang across the field. He staff glowed brilliant violet, and she swung it like a scythe at Commander Covington, slicing him cleanly in half. He looked almost surprised as he saw his two halves coming apart, and then he burst into a cloud of sparks.

"I'll set two cards and end my turn." She looked expectantly at Jack. "How was that?"

Jack gave her a slight smile. "Couldn't have done it better myself."

There was a moment of silence. Then the night was filled with the sound of laughter, a low rumble that seemed to come from everywhere at once.

"Now you've done it," said Saiga. "I activate Machina Force's special effect - when it's destroyed, I can resummon its component monsters. Then I can sacrifice them to summon a new monster - Earthbound God Allqui!"

There was a rumble beneath the earth.

"Hold on!" Jack shouted, crouching over his steering wheel.

Carly gave a squeak and hung on for dear life. In the next instant, something burst out of the earth, spraying chunks of asphalt in all directions. Jack swerved wildly to try to avoid the flying debris. He swung around a corner and looped back to face the monstrosity that was looming over them. It was a dog, black as night save for a pattern of orange stripes that glowed like smoldering embers. It paced on long legs, pointed ears pricked towards Jack and Carly as sticky streamers of saliva dripped from its toothy jaws.

"What is that?" Carly whimpered.

"It looks to me like a mangy mutt," said Jack, "and I plan to collar it and send it back to the pound."

He spoke loudly, making it a challenge, but Carly was close enough to feel the tension in his muscles, and she knew that he was afraid.

Saiga must have sensed it, too. He smiled a small smile of grim satisfaction.

"Allqui is a scavenger," he said. "He draws his power from those who have fallen. For every monster in either player's graveyard, it gains five hundred attack points. That includes every monster in your graveyards, and in Yuji's." His fist clenched. "At least this much of him, you can't take away from me."

Carly felt her throat tighten. "Saiga..."

"It's over for both of you," he said. "The only question is, which of you is going first? Do I take out the strongest player first, or do I aim for a weak spot? I just wish I knew a way to make both of you feel what I felt..."

"Quit gloating," said Jack. "You sound like a movie villain. The game isn't over until it's won."

Saiga's eyes flashed. "You always did have a smart mouth. Fine. You can watch your girlfriend die first, and then I'll take care of that dragon of yours. That way, I can break your heart _and_ your soul. Allqui, attack her monster!"

"Carly, look out!" Jack shouted.

She scrambled desperately and managed to get her Duel Disk in front of her.

"Trap Card, open!" she gasped. "Interdimensional Matter Transporter! My monster is removed from play until the end of the turn."

Allqui lunged at her monster, teeth bared, but Fortune Lady Dark twirled her staff again and disappeared into thin air. The god-beast growled its frustration at being bilked of its prey before stalking back to Saiga's side. Saiga glared at Carly.

"Stop doing that!" he snapped.

"Not if you're going to kill me, I won't!" she answered.

"Fine," he said. "I end my turn. There's only so many times in a row you can do that trick. Keep it up, and I'll change my mind and take your boyfriend out in front of you instead."

"Stop it!" said Jack. "Just stop! I'm tired of listening to you. I get it - woe is you, your life is miserable. Taking it out on us won't bring Yuji back, and it won't make you feel any better."

"Yeah, well, I won't know until I've done it," said Saiga sullenly. "Make your move."

Jack scowled and drew his next card. He studied it for a moment. He was quiet.

"Jack?" asked Carly hesitantly. "What did you get?"

"Nothing useful. I don't have anything in my hand that can win this." His voice was distant, detached.

"Neither do I," she admitted.

"I'm not sure I have anything in my deck that can win this."

Carly shook her head. "That's not true. There has to be something. There _has_to be."

"And if there isn't?"

"Then we'll make something up."

Jack gave a mirthless laugh. "You don't get to make things up in duels. You only get to play the hand you're dealt."

"Not us," she said. "We've already done things nobody has ever done before. Everybody said it was impossible to get off of Satellite, and we did. There's got to be a way for us to do this too, right? If there's nothing in either of our decks alone then we'll put them both together to make a way. That's how we've always done it, right?"

"It may not be so easy this time." He turned away from her. "I shouldn't have let you get involved in this. None of this is your responsibility. I'm the Signer here - this is my problem, not yours."

"Don't talk like that!" she said. "You're not getting rid of me that easily! This isn't just about you anymore, Jack. Neither of us could have done this alone. It has to be done together or not at all." She hung her head. "I wish I was a Signer, so I could be more help to you. I wish I was a better duelist. I wish there was something..."

She felt a sob rising up in her throat, and she held it back with an effort of will. She was not going to cry, not now, not when Jack needed her support. She _would not_ fall apart. She was all he had left.

_Please,_ she thought. _Let there be something I can do. I am so far out of my depth, I don't know if I'll ever make it back to where I started again, but I'll do anything if it will get us both out of this alive. Or... or just Jack. He's the one who matters. He could get by without me, but I don't want to do this without him. Please..._

She wasn't sure who she was asking. She certainly wasn't expecting an answer. She didn't even have much hope left. All she could do was talk to herself, let the words run around in her head that she refused to speak aloud because she would not show Jack her weakness any more than she had to.

It was enough.

Something inside her suddenly jerked, as though an invisible force had started flooding her, pushing bits of her being out of the way in a body that had never been meant to hold it. At the same time, she heard Jack give a gasp of surprise and pain and clutch at his arm, but she was too busy with her own problems to spare him more than an instant of thought. She was certain she was going to die, that she _was_ dying, that whatever held her soul to her body was going to come undone in the onslaught of whatever this force was. She thought she might have screamed, but it was all lost in the pounding of her heartbeat.

Then her perspective took a sideways lurch, and the world snapped into a new arrangement - one that was different from before, but workable. The strange force was still there, but it seemed to have found a shape and rhythm compatible with her own. They could co-exist alongside each other. She blinked a few times, trying to re-orient herself, and as she did, she became aware that Jack was staring at her. She stared back.

"Jack, your arm - the mark..." she stammered. "It... it..."

"Moved," he said.

"What?"

Comprehension was slow in coming. Carly stared at Jack's arm, at the place where his strange red birthmark should have been hidden beneath his sleeve. It wasn't. It was glowing a brilliant red, brighter than flame... and it was only half there. Where there had once been a matched pair of wings, there was now only one.

A few seconds later, she realized that the other one had attached itself to her.

"Oh, no," she said softly. "This isn't right. I can't... I'm not supposed... these are for the _heroes_."

Jack only grinned. _She_ might have been floored by this turn of events, but he clearly approved. The fire was back in his eyes.

"Somebody's on our side," he said. "I don't know what's going to happen next, but I'm betting it's going to be good. You in?"

Carly looked at the new sign glowing on her arms.

_A pair of wings. Yes. It makes sense. It's just like us. One wing on its own can't fly - you have to use them as a pair._

"Yeah," she said, smiling. "We can do this. Together."

"My turn - draw!" he said.

His hand came to rest on his deck, and the cards suddenly glowed with a warm red light. He drew the top card, turned it over, and looked at it.

"All right," he said, "now we're getting somewhere. I summon the Tuner Monster Kyuuseiryuu - Savior Dragon!"

A tiny winged creature flitted onto the field. It was pink and shimmering, more like some manner of insect than a dragon, gleaming in its own light.

"Not bad," said Jack, "but I still need a bit more. Carly, do you feel like sharing your strength with me?"

"Anything you want," she said.

She should have been frightened, but she wasn't. Her mind felt clear, as if whatever had taken up residence inside her had burned away all her fears to make room for it. With the Dragon's mark linking her to Jack, she knew exactly what he needed without him needing to ask. He had told her from the start that she should defend herself, and she had duly defended. Her life points were still untouched; now they could do some good.

"Quick-play Spell Card - Emergency Provisions!" she said. "I can destroy one of my spells or traps to gain one thousand life points!"

Saiga looked at her in consternation. "That's ridiculous! Your card isn't a Speed Spell. You'll _lose_ two thousand life points just to play that stupid card!"

"I'm not playing it for myself," she said. "This is a tag duel - I'm playing it for him."

Jack flashed her a grin. "That will do. Now I play the magic card Monster Reborn! I'll have to spend some of those life points I just got to use a non-Speed Spell, but now I can summon a monster from the graveyard - _any_player's graveyard, so I choose to summon Fortune Lady Light!"

A circle of light opened on the field, and the Fortune Lady rose gracefully out of it, flourishing her staff.

"Now let's see what this thing can do," said Jack. "I tune Savior Dragon, Red Demon's Dragon, and Fortune Lady Light to summon Savior Demon Dragon!"

Lights combined, red and gold, in a swirling cloud. From out of the vortex came a dragon - not a muscular bat-winged creature like the Red Demon's Dragon, but something sleek and sinuous, slipping gracefully through the air as though gravity had no hold on it. Saiga did not appear to like it; he flinched away, throwing up an arm to shield his eyes from the light.

"What do you think you're going to do with that?" he demanded.

"I'm going to destroy your monster with it," said Jack.

"Haven't you been paying attention?" asked Saiga, exasperated. "This is no ordinary monster, it's a god! Nothing can destroy it - not traps, not spells, and not some shiny pink monster!"

"That's where you're wrong," said Jack. "It isn't a god. It's a card, and it's subject to the same rules as any other card. Its powers are nothing but card effects, and it just so happens that my new monster has the power to negate other monster's effects. And without your monster's special effect, its attack points go to zero!"

"What? But... you can't!" Saiga exclaimed. "It's not possible..."

"Watch me," said Jack. "I activate Savior Demon Dragon's effect! Once per turn, I can negate the effect of one of your face up monsters, and when I activate this effect, I can add the attack points of your monster to mine!"

The Savior Demon Dragon roared, and Allqui cowered, ears pinned back, tail between its legs, looking not very godly at all. Its fiery glow seemed to be dimming, its markings becoming barely visible. The dragon, on the other hand, gleamed with power, shining like a sunrise. Jack smiled.

"I warned you, Saiga," he said. "I warned you nothing good would happen if you tried to break the bond between Carly and me. It's stronger even than your god. Savior Demon Dragon, attack!"

The glow around the dragon intensified as it gathered power around itself. Then it flared its wings, and a stream of power flashed across the field to pierce the demon dog's side. It gave a howl that made Carly's bones vibrate. Then it crumpled in on itself, becoming little more than a pile of sparks and ashes like the remains of a dying fire, and then it was gone entirely.

Saiga's D-Wheel spun out of control, tires screeching on the pavement, until it finally slammed into a pile of junk. Saiga was flung from his seat and sent spinning end over end to land in a crumpled heap. Jack let the Wheel of Fortune skid to a halt, and he and Carly raced over to the place where Saiga had fallen. The fall should have been enough to finish him off, but as Carly knelt next to him, he stirred and opened his eyes.

"Here to gloat?" he asked.

Carly shook her head. "Don't talk like that..."

He sighed and closed his eyes, turning away from her. "That was pretty stupid, wasn't it? You were right. I screwed everything up, as usual."

"You made a bad choice," said Carly, "but I understand why you did it. I probably would have done the same thing, if it was someone I really loved."

Saiga almost smiled. "You're a good girl, Carly. You two... have been better friends than I deserved. I wish I'd done better by the both of you."

"You built this D-Wheel," said Jack. "And you gave me a good duel. What else would I want from you?"

"Typical," said Saiga. "You have a one track mind. Carly, you'll keep an eye on this idiot for me, won't you?"

Carly nodded, her throat tight. Saiga sighed.

"I guess that's it, then." More quietly, he added, "Do you think Yuji will forgive me?"

"I'm sure of it," Carly replied.

"I sure hope so," said Saiga. "I wonder if they'll let me see him again, sometime." He closed his eyes and gave a deep sigh. "Yuji..."

Then he was gone. Carly turned away. Jack came and put his arms around her, and she buried her face against his shirt while he stroked her hair and murmured words she only half- heard. She knew that this was the best ending they could have hoped for, but it didn't feel that way to her. She felt cold and lonely, and grateful to have someone to lean against. It would be nice if she could just stand there forever, letting Jack comfort her, and forget that there was anything else in the world.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been standing there before she became aware of a sound, something out of place on this empty night: a human voice. An unfamiliar young man was approaching, muttering to himself.

"...could have sworn it was around here somewhere," it said. "Don't tell me I'm going to have to - holy crap, Jack's kissing a girl!"

Carly jumped away guiltily. Standing on a ridge nearby was a young man with flaming red hair and a remarkable number of criminal markers. He was watching the two of them with a look of surprise that was quickly melting into amusement. Jack fixed him with his stoniest glare.

"What," he asked loftily, "would you expect me to be kissing?"

The newcomer rolled his eyes. "How about my ass?"

Carly looked from one man to the other.

"Isn't that your friend?" Carly asked Jack.

"Maybe," said Jack. "I might reconsider."

Crow leapt down from his perch, skidding to the ground and ambling over to join them.

"Well, if it ain't my old buddy Jack," he said. "I had a funny feeling I'd find you out here. Who's the girl?"

"This is Carly," Jack replied. "Carly, this joker is Crow Hogan."

"Weren't you supposed to be dead?" she asked.

"Nah. I'm going to live forever," said Crow cheerfully. "Heaven doesn't want me and hell's scared of what I'd do to the place if they let me in." He turned to Jack. "So, when did you get a sex life, anyway?"

"He hasn't," Carly lamented.

"He _hasn't?_" Crow repeated. He turned to Jack. "Hey, you'd better get on the job! She doesn't really strike me as the patient type."

"I've been busy, all right?" Jack snapped. "I'll get to it when I get around to it!"

"Promise?" Carly asked. She was glad that Crow was here. Strange as it felt to be joking at a time like this, he made it easier to laugh. His devil-may-care attitude and fearless smile gave her a feeling that everything was going to be all right, and she was grateful to him for it.

"Could we find something else to talk about?" Jack asked. "What are you doing here, anyway?"

Crow answered by pushing up the sleeve of his glove to reveal a red marking etched onto his skin. "Looks like the red dragon decided you guys couldn't do this without my expert assistance."

Carly expected another sarcastic remark from Jack, but to her surprise, he almost smiled.

"Good," he said. "If your jokes don't send these Dark Signers running, nothing will."

"Ha-ha, ha-ha, funny guy," said Crow. "Better leave the jokes to me."

"How did you find us, anyway?" Carly asked.

"It wasn't exactly hard. I saw all the bright lights in the sky, and I figured, hey, that's probably where the action is, so I turned up and here you are," said Crow. "So, what's been going on? Anything exciting?"

"We had a duel," said Jack. His tone dared Crow to ask any more questions, but Crow took one look at his face and apparently decided he didn't need details as much as all that.

"Well, you don't look dead, so I guess you won," said Crow. More seriously, he added, "I had a little dust-up myself."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Couldn't have been much of a challenge, then."

"It was Kiryu," said Crow quietly. He turned away. "Come on. I need to call the others and let them know I found you."

He led them up the hill to where he'd parked his D-Wheel. As he approached it, he scooped something off the back and tossed it to Jack.

"Here, think fast!" he said.

Jack fumbled and grabbed at it. "What is... argh!"

He threw it back, and Crow caught it and laughed. Carly just stared, wondering why on earth he was carrying an arm in a vat, and resolved to ask him about it as soon as an opportunity presented itself.

"Sorry, couldn't resist," said Crow. He strapped the capsule with the arm in it to the back of his D-Wheel and started punching buttons on the display, sending out a message to his comrades. "Hey, guys, I found them! Want us to meet you somewhere?"

Yusei's voice came through the connection. "We're all heading for the B.A.A.D. area. Meet us at the bridge."

"We're on it," Crow agreed. "See you there." He turned back to his companions. "Come on, guys, let's roll. You still remember the way, right, Jack?"

"I think I can find it," said Jack dryly. "It's only a mile-wide hole in the ground."

"Wait, where are we going?" asked Carly.

"It's called B.A.A.D.," said Jack. "It's the area closest to where the Old Momentum used to be. There's nothing there now but a crater - maybe not really a mile wide, but close enough. No one goes out there, now, except the people even the other Satelliters don't want. It's a dangerous place."

"Probably not anyone out there now, though," said Crow. "If that cloud didn't get them, they've probably holed up. We can make it."

"Well... if you're sure," said Carly. After all, Jack had proven that the day they'd met that he was more than a match for just about anyone. Certainly whatever was ahead of them couldn't be much worse than what they'd already been through.

She returned to the Wheel of Fortune with Jack, and the two of them set out to catch up with Crow. He waited at the top of the hill for them. Jack, predictably, drove straight past him, and Crow revved his engine and took off like a shot to catch up to them.

"Hey, Jack, nice ride," he said. "What, you couldn't afford to spring for two tires?"

"Shut up," said Jack. "I didn't have to pay for this. It was a gift. From a friend."

Crow saw the look Jack was giving him and didn't ask any more questions.

Within a few moments, they came to a place where a deep crack divided the earth in two. Strung across the gap was a rickety-looking bridge of wood and rope. Two Security jeeps and Yusei's red D-Wheel were parked on the near side. Carly couldn't resist doing a quick head count. It was a relief to see that they everyone was present.

_We're winning,_ she thought, with a flicker of hope. _Maybe we've already won. Maybe they're all gone now, and we can just turn off the machine and go home._

Jack and Crow pulled to a halt near their friends.

"See, I told you I'd find 'em!" Crow boasted.

Yusei gave him a faint smile. "Good job. Jack, Carly, what have you been doing? Are you both all right?"

"We're fine," said Jack tersely. "We met some Dark Signers. They didn't slow us down long."

"So how many does that make?" asked Mikage. "Rua and Ruka took one each, and then Aki fought one, and Crow fought one..."

"Carly and I took two more," said Jack. "That sounds like all of them. We should be done."

Ushio thought about that for a moment. "Nah. Can't be that easy. Nothing's that easy, this week."

The others were forced to agree with him. They looked across the bridge.

"Is that going to take everyone's weight?" asked Mikage nervously. "It doesn't look very stable..."

"Sure it will," said Crow. "People go back and forth all the time. Here, watch me!"

Jack glared at him. "Crow, your bike has _wings_."

Crow was already on his way. He streaked across the bridge, planks rattling beneath his wheels, and skidded to a halt on the other side.

"See?" he called back. "No problem! Just take it quick, and you'll be fine."

"You really think it's okay?" asked Ruka, peering at the gap. "That's a long way down."

"I've done it before on a D-Wheel," said Ushio. "I guess it's safe... only one way to find out."

"Can't we just walk?" asked Rua nervously.

"Better hang on," Ushio advised, and took off.

They made it across the bridge safely, and Mikage and Aki followed shortly afterwards. Yusei went next, and then there was only Jack and Carly left. Jack pulled up to the end of the bridge and eyed it a moment, gauging the distance. Carly peeked over his shoulder at the trench.

"Can't we go around?" she asked.

"Not without going a few miles out of our way," he replied, "which I don't plan to do. We're going."

Carly opened her mouth to argue, and then gave a little shriek as he redlined the engine and took off across the bridge. The boards trembled beneath them as they roared over them, and Carly could feel her teeth rattle. Then there was a sideways lurch, and Carly yelped and clung to Jack with a death grip. He risked a glance over his shoulder.

"It's coming loose," he said.

"Thanks for warning me!" Carly wailed.

"We'll make it," he insisted.

The bridge wobbled wildly beneath them, but Jack gritted his teeth and bore down on the accelerator. They made it to the other side just as the bridge gave way entirely and fell into the chasm. Jack skidded to a halt on the far side, as calmly as though he'd meant to do things this way all along.

"I have to hand it to Saiga," he said. "He may have issues, but he knows how to build a bike."

"Are you two all right?" asked Aki.

"I would be," said Jack, "if a _certain someone_ would let me breathe..."

Carly let go of him and tried to pretend she hadn't been doing anything out of the ordinary.

"Looks like no one will be using that bridge for a while," Crow remarked. "You Security folks are going to have to send for a helicopter to get us home."

Yusei looked back at the place where the bridge had been.

"No turning back," he observed.

The group fell into silence. A few of them looked uneasily at the place where the bridge used to be, while others gazed across the barren wasteland that surrounded the site of the old Momentum. Crow sighed.

"You sure know how to motivate people," he said.

Yusei gave a mirthless smile. "It's a gift."

He revved his engine and started forwards, and the others straggled after him. Ahead of them, the vortex of lightning swirled slowly, lazily, towards an unseen point, illuminating the world with a shifting glow that made the shadows dance like living things. It wasn't a place any sane human would want to enter.

But there was nowhere else to go.

**To Be Continued...**


	31. They Lose Momentum

**They Lose Momentum**

**By: SilvorMoon**

_I always knew I was going to end up here someday._

Yusei was pensive as he drove, looking out over a landscape that was both strange and familiar. Like most of the boys who grew up in Satellite, Yusei and his friends had spent their share of time sneaking around the B.A.A.D. sector, taking dares, competing to see who would go the furthest in without losing their nerve. Yusei had always made it further than any of his friends, to the point where they stopped daring him to do it. The sector had an undefinable aura of menace about it that kept all but the most desperate people from staying there very long. Even when there was no immediate danger in sight, brave men like Jack and Crow would find themselves filled with a nameless dread that forced them to turn tail and return to safer havens.

Yusei had always felt it, too, the sense that something was lurking just out of sight, contemplating him, evaluating him, just waiting for the chance to swallow him up. It bothered him as much as it bothered anyone else, perhaps even more than most; it was only that with him, there was another force luring him onward just as strongly. He had always known that the lab where his parents had worked had been in that place. There was some part of him that wanted to see it for himself, to know where his only family had spent their days, to have some sort of contact with them. An even smaller part still didn't quite believe they were dead. No matter how irrational he knew it was, he couldn't quite make himself stop feeling like if he just searched the blast site long enough, he would find his mother and father.

_I know I'll never get to see them face to face,_ he thought, _but at least I can avenge their deaths._

The thought had been preying on his mind. He had already learned from the others the nature of the Dark Signers they had fought. They seemed to believe that there were no more Signers left, but Yusei had a sneaking suspicion that they were wrong. Goodwin had told him that the man who had started this whole disaster was still alive, lurking within the bowels of the old lab. The first Dark Signer, and also the last.

_Whoever you are, you're mine._

Within minutes, the group reached the lip of the crater and parked their vehicles. Rua crept over to the edge of the pit and peered into its depths. He scooped up a bit of rubble and tossed it in, listening for it to land. There was no sound.

"How far down does this hole go?" he asked.

"Quite a long way, or so I'm given to understand," said Mikage. "I took some time to study the diagrams when I was looking up information on the control towers. The original Momentum was built deep underground to contain it if there was a malfunction. It doesn't seem to have helped, but..."

Crow looked up at the swirling flickers of lightning that were still dancing above the pit. Every so often, one of them would sizzle down to strike something hidden in its depths, and the whole area would light up with a flash of neon color.

"Well, at least it won't be dark," he remarked.

"Ah, this is nothing," said Ushio. "I've broken up raves wilder than this."

"There's no help for it," said Yusei. "We're going to have to go down." He glanced at Ushio and Mikage. "You don't have to come if you don't want to. You've already been a help, and this is probably going to be dangerous. Besides, it's Signer business. This isn't your problem."

The two officers exchanged looks. Mikage nodded.

"We're going," said Ushio. "You might still need some backup. Besides, you ought to have a Security presence with you, just to make everything official."

Mikage nodded seriously. "The paperwork for this is going to be a nightmare as it is. There ought to be an official witness present."

Yusei almost smiled.

"If you wanted to come," he said, "you could have just asked."

"This is pointless," Jack opined. "If we're going to go, let's go."

He started for the edge of the pit, with Carly scrambling after him.

"Hey, wait up," said Crow. "We can't just go rushing in without some supplies."

Jack shot him a look over his shoulder. "What do you think we need?"

Instead of answering, Crow walked over to his bike and started rummaging around in its compartments. After a while, he came up with a grappling hook on the end of a long rope, which he looped over his shoulders.

"All right, now I'm ready," he said.

"What were you carrying that for?" asked Ushio, with a glint of professional suspicion showing.

Crow shrugged and grinned. "You never know when you might need a rope. Rope is practical. Anyway, this place has been sitting around rusting for years. We might have some fancy climbing ahead."

"You can go in first, then," said Yusei.

Crow rolled his eyes.

"Me and my big mouth," he said, but he started for the stairs and began to climb.

After that, there wasn't much else to do but follow, so they began picking their way downwards. Yusei could feel his heart racing as he descended. He might have been on his way to face something that could conceivably destroy the entire world, but all he could think was, _This is the place. This is where my parents were..._

He looked around, trying to imagine what the place would have looked like when it was new and bustling with activity. He wondered what it would have been like to work there. If the Momentum hadn't been sabotaged, would he be working here now alongside his family? Would the Director and his brother still be here helping them? He could almost see it in his mind's eye...

He was so wrapped up in his imaginings that he almost didn't notice a flicker of movement somewhere nearby. Yusei paused, staring into the gloom.

"Did you see that?" he asked.

"See what?" asked Crow. "There's nothing there. I mean, it's just empty space..."

That was true. They were walking down a staircase that led into the deepest parts of the laboratory, so looking in any direction except at the staircase itself could only involve looking into open air. There was nothing to see but a few catwalks leading away from the landings to other parts of the complex. No one was there at all, but Yusei felt certain he had seen something. He frowned, staring into the darkness.

There was a flash of lightning, and in that brief instant, Yusei saw a human figure suspended in midair.

"Who's there?" he called.

In response, there was a rasp of harsh, scraping laughter. The others froze in their tracks, looking for the source of the sound.

"Well, what do you know," the voice rasped. "It's little Yusei, all grown up. You look just like your old man."

"What do you know about my father?" Yusei demanded.

"More than you, that's for sure," said the voice.

Yusei stared into the darkness. He thought he saw eyes glinting there, but he couldn't be certain.

"Who are you? Come out where I can see you," he said.

The speaker laughed again.

"What? You came all this way to find me, and you still don't know who I am?" it asked. "What a pack of idiots!"

"Hey," said Crow, "it ain't like you sent out invitations or anything. How were we supposed to know?"

"Heh, you got a point," said the voice. "Maybe I should introduce myself..."

"Wait," said Jack, eyes narrowed. "I know you. I know your voice - you're the one who was controlling Ushio that night..."

"That's the guy?" asked Ushio. "He owes me a bike!"

"Yes, I remember you, too," the stranger said. "So, you know my voice, do you? Let's see if you know my face."

The darkness lifted. The staircase became lit with florescent lighting, feeble and flickering, casting sick pink light and strange shadows. In the midst of it all, a man was standing in midair. Yusei stared a moment, before a faint shimmer revealed that there was a spiderweb stretched beneath his feet, and he was balanced lightly on it, as easily as if he stood on solid ground. He smiled at everyone, apparently enjoying their stunned reactions. Yusei regarded him levelly. He was sure he had never seen this man before, and yet, there was something familiar about him.

Then it clicked. Many things, in fact, one after another, as neatly as cogs turning against each other. For a moment, Yusei could only stare, gaping, as he watched the world slip into its true alignment.

"You're Rudger," he said. "The Director's brother..."

"So you're starting to figure it out," said Rudger. "I guess you inherited some of your father's brains, after all."

"The Director has a brother?" Carly exclaimed. "Since when?"

"Since always," said Rudger. "We've been busy with a few things, but we still keep in touch."

"He knew you were here," said Yusei. "He's known all along, hasn't he?"

"Of course," said Rudger. "You've been set up. He got you all rounded up and pointed in the direction he wanted you to go, and then he came straight over here to tell me you were coming. How does it feel knowing you've been on a wild goose chase all this time?"

"We haven't been," said Yusei. "We've already defeated all your allies. It's only you left. Once you're gone, it's over."

"Heh, that's what you think," said Rudger. "Do you think Rex told you the truth about everything? Can you trust what he tells you?"

"What do you mean?" asked Yusei.

Rudger only laughed. "What, you mean you don't have any guesses at all? Guess you're not as clever as all that. Well, I'll give you a hint. Did Rex tell you who the fifth Signer is?"

"He didn't tell us anything," said Yusei. "Are you telling me...?"

Rudger pushed up his sleeve, showing bare metal where flesh should have been.

"That was me," he said, "a long time ago, before I decided to be rid of that blasted mark. Do you get that? There _is_ no fifth Signer. There will never _be_ a fifth Signer. I cast off my mark and threw in my lot with the underworld gods. Rex knew that. You've been set up."

There was a momentary pause.

"Oh, hey," said Crow, "does that mean that's your arm I've got strapped to my bike? Because I was wondering."

Rudger turned on him with ice in his gaze. "Where did you get that?"

"Stole it from the Director," said Crow cheerfully.

"You _what?_"

"Hey, it's his own fault for leaving it lying around," said Crow, "in a hidden room at the bottom of a locked elevator, where I could find it. He didn't even have it bolted down."

A look of consternation flashed across Rudger's face. "You dare..." Then he took a breath and calmed himself. "Well, it doesn't matter. Having it and having the power of a Signer are two different things."

"You're wrong," said Crow. "You want to know why? Because I'm the best damned thief in Satellite, and I can steal _anything_." He pushed up his glove to reveal the mark on his arm. "Even this."

For a moment, Rudger was too stunned to say anything. He stood there for a moment with his mouth hanging open, looking ready to topple off of his own spiderwebs. Crow grinned at him. Rudger scowled.

"That isn't possible," he said.

"Don't tell me that," said Crow. "Tell the dragon. It was his idea!"

"Forget it," said Rudger. "Don't think this is going to save any of you. Those losers you battled were infants compared to me. But if you really want to take a chance, then come and get me!"

He turned and bounded off, springing on invisible strands of webbing, his cloak billowing behind him like dark wings.

In a flash, Yusei went after him. He didn't think twice about it - not about if it was a good idea or if the webs would support him or even if he should talk to his friends about it. His mind seemed to be full of a red haze. All he could think was that this was the man who had killed his parents - the man who had made his dearest friends orphans, who had ruined Satellite, who had cost untold numbers of people their lives. He was going to find this man and make him pay.

He vaulted over the railing of the staircase and landed on something springy. He glanced down, trying to reassure himself that he was standing on something that wouldn't give way beneath him. There was a fine mesh of webbing running back and forth through the shadowy inner recesses of the lab. Closer inspection showed that it was really several webs, not all level with each other - they were long tiered strips, staggered at intervals, so that if Yusei wasn't careful, he would fall off an edge and plunge into who-knew-what. He soon also discovered that walking on the stuff was difficult. Any little movement was magnified, making the webs bounce and swing until he could barely stay upright.

He realized he was going to have to move by leaps and bounds if he was going to make it anywhere. That had been easy enough for Rudger, who presumably knew where all of them were, but for Yusei, it was going to be more difficult. In the uncertain lighting, they were invisible beyond a few feet. He thought a moment. Then he reached in his pocket and produced a handful of washers and bolts and other small machine parts. They glittered slightly even in the dim light. Yusei gauged the distance, then threw them in a wide arc. They landed on the cobwebs and hung there, sparkling like stardust in the gloom. Yusei smiled a thin smile.

_You won't get away from me that easily._

The other thing about spider webs, he soon realized, was that he could move soundlessly on them. It was like a dream, striding silently through the air, descending into deeper and deeper shadows, following a trail of tiny lights.

He wasn't sure how far he had gone before he reached a landing. A few moments of more careful investigation revealed that it was a metal walkway, leading off into the distance. In one direction, Yusei could just make out some sort of light, something that shifted and shimmered like a living thing. Looking at it made his insides lurch.

_Is that... the old Momentum?_

Almost against his will, he began walking forward. Eventually, he walked through a place that looked like it had once had a wide pair of double doors spanning it - doors that had been blown completely off their hinges, tearing off chunks of the wall as they went. Beyond that, there was a vast open space, the remnants of what had once been a thriving laboratory, with a number of catwalks spanning it, including the one Yusei was walking on. If Yusei looked down, he could see something bright pulsing at the bottom of the well. There was something strangely fascinating about it, the way the lights twisted and spun, writhing almost like a solid substance...

"Yeah, that's it," said a voice close by. "Your father's invention."

Yusei turned to look. Rudger was walking closer to him, his expression unreadable.

"Why did you destroy it?" Yusei demanded.

Rudger gave a bark of laughter. "It would have gotten destroyed anyway. I was just helping it along a little. I guess Rex didn't tell you the whole story, did he?"

Yusei looked at him warily. "Why should I believe anything you tell me? Either of you."

"Who else is going to tell you?" asked Rudger, smiling. "Everyone else who was there that day is dead. I'm the only one who can tell you what happened the day your parents died. If you don't get it from me, you'll never know."

"The Director knows," said Yusei.

"Not anymore, he doesn't," Rudger says. "He's dead."

Yusei skipped a beat. As long as he could remember, the Director had been a fixture of his world for as long as he could remember. Rex Goodwin was the most powerful man in the world; people of every nation would snap to attention if he gave an order. It seemed impossible that he could simply be gone. The inevitable, irrational thought slipped through Yusei's mind: _But I just saw him this morning..._

"He can't be dead," he said aloud. "You're lying."

Rudger shrugged. "I don't know, maybe he isn't. You can go down there and ask him. I dropped him into that." He pointed at the Momentum, fifty feet below them. "If you find him, tell him I said no hard feelings."

"He was your _brother_," said Yusei. "He loved you..."

"All the more reason for him to go over the edge," said Rudger. "If he's going to do a stupid thing like that, he deserves what he gets." More quietly, almost to himself, he said, "I warned him not to do it."

"I don't believe you!" Yusei exclaimed. "How can you just stand there talking about killing your brother and your friends like they don't even matter?"

"They don't," said Rudger flatly. "Everything is going to die anyway. What difference does it make if they go a little sooner? Rex wanted to die anyway; I did him a favor."

Yusei slotted his deck into his Duel Disk.

"I'm going to kill you," he said.

Rudger grinned. "Bit late for that, ain't it?"

"Duel me," said Yusei. "I'm going to make you pay for everything you've done."

"You think you have to ask?" Rudger retorted. "Kid, I plan to finish the job I started seventeen years ago."

He powered up a Duel Disk and stood at ready.

"Since you challenged me, I'll start," he said. "I set one card face-down. Turn end."

"That's all?" asked Yusei.

Rudger gave a bark of laughter. "What can I say? Consider it a favor to my old friend's son."

"You are not my father's friend," said Yusei.

"What? You think everything is so black and white as all that?" asked Rudger. He shook his head. "Kid, you've got a lot to learn. Does it feel good to judge people like that?"

"You murdered innocent people!" Yusei snapped. "How can I not judge you for that?" He reached for his deck and drew his cards. "I activate the effect of Quick Synchron! By discarding a card from my hand, I can summon this monster without a sacrifice!"

He played his card, and a small pistol-toting robot appeared on the field, flourishing a red cape and drawing a bead on Rudger.

"Cute monster," said Rudger. "Is it gonna shoot me with its little pop-gun?"

"I'm not done yet," said Yusei. "The card I abandoned was Level Eater. By lowering Quick Synchron's level by one, I can special summon my monster back to the field. Then, I'll use Quick Synchron's second special effect: I can use it in place of any Synchro monster during a synchro summoning, so I'll use it to replace Junk Synchron, and tune it to summon Junk Warrior!"

The monsters dissolved into bright lights, swirling together to become a sleek robotic warrior. Yusei gave a little nod of approval as it appeared.

"Now, Junk Warrior, attack him directly!"

The robot fired off a volley of rounds at Rudger. He raised an arm to shield his face, grimacing as fireballs exploded all around him.

"I activate my trap card," he said. "The Truth of Nonresistance! You attacked me, I didn't fight back. That means I get to summon one monster from my hand and another with the same name from my deck, so I'll summon two Dark Spiders." He flashed a grin. "So, how does it feel to attack a defenseless man? Sure you're not better than that?"

"Shut up," Yusei snapped.

"Snappy comeback," said Rudger. "You sound really confident in yourself."

"Stop talking and duel," Yusei replied. "I set a card and end my turn."

"Fine," said Rudger. "You want to see me duel? Fine. I say we take this _down _a notch. I play the field spell card Spider Web!"

As he spoke, webs began to spiral out from around him, filling the room. His monsters scuttled up the strands and vanished into the shadows. Rudger bounded over the edge of the walkway and took off after them.

"Why do you keep doing that?" Yusei demanded, but he jumped over the railing after him.

They descended, Rudger sliding down easily and Yusei scampering clumsily after him. The threads were sticky, clinging to his clothes and hands. He felt like the skin from his hands was being pulled off one layer at a time, but he gritted his teeth and forced himself to keep going.

_Now I know why I never liked bugs..._

He got within a few feet of the ground and let go, dropping heavily onto the floor. There was debris everywhere, seventeen years worth of things crumbling to rust and dust. He walked carefully, listening to things crunch beneath his feet.

Only a few yards away was the Momentum, or what was left of it. Yusei raised his eyes to look at it and flinched away again. There was something about that light that made his eyes feel wrong; it tingled against his skin like the rays of an alien sun.

"That's right. You feel it, don't you?" asked Rudger. "That's the power of the Momentum..."

"You ruined it," said Yusei. "My father built this machine for the good of everyone, and you twisted it for evil."

"Is that what you think?" asked Rudger. He snorted. "Good... evil... you talk about them like they're real things."

"They are," said Yusei stubbornly.

"What makes you so sure?" Rudger replied. "Can you honestly say that those people you and your friends just killed were evil? Or that any of you are good? Do you know how many people that girl Aki hurt following Divine's orders? Or should we talk about the officers your friend Crow hurt while he was escaping from jail? Hey, what do you think your buddy Jack would have done if it would get him off of Satellite?"

Yusei narrowed his eyes. "Are you saying you had good reasons for doing what you did?"

"I'm saying that you're wrong about your dad," said Rudger. "The Momentum was _never _a good thing. Even if I hadn't done anything, it would have blown sky-high anyway."

"You're lying!" Yusei said. "My father never would have built something that dangerous."

"How do you know? You never met the guy," said Rudger. "I'll show you the truth of how things are. I sacrifice my two monsters to summon Earthbound God Uru!"

The earth trembled. Yusei fell to the ground and clung to the floor as though he thought it might tilt and pitch him into an abyss. The light of the Momentum flared up to the sky, bright enough to dazzle his eyes. From out of the light, something emerged: one long leg, then another, and then a huge pair of jagged-edged mandibles that could snap up a man whole. The spider god climbed out of the light with the slow, patient movements of something that knew its prey wasn't going anywhere. It turned its eight eyes to look at Yusei, and he felt a shiver run through him. Those eyes were intelligent, but it was the intelligence of something that something that had never had a human thought in all its centuries of existence, and Yusei had to avert his gaze. Then he steeled himself. Rudger was wrong. If anything proved the existence of evil, this thing did.

"Now you'll see what you're up against," said Rudger. "Uru, attack!"

Uru reached out one leg and swung it in his direction, and Yusei had a sudden feeling that he was about to be dealt retribution for every bug he'd ever stepped on.

"Trap card, open! Synchro Barrier!" he said. "I sacrifice my Junk Warrior to reduce all my damage to zero!"

Rudger snorted. "That's pretty good, dodging the attack of a god. Looks like I'm going to have to get creative. I set two facedowns, and then I'll discard the monster card Spider Coccoon from the top of my deck to play the permanent spell Destiny Trigger." He smiled. "Do you believe in destiny, Yusei? I do. Always have."

"What has that got to do with anything?" Yusei demanded.

"A couple of things," said Rudger. "The first thing is that thanks to Destiny Trigger, from now on, on each of your draw phases, I get to see the card you draw, and if it's the same type of card as the one I just discarded, the card is destroyed and your life points are halved." Yusei stared at him in shock, and he laughed. "How's that for destiny? Now it all comes down to how lucky you are with the cards you draw."

"You say that as though the giant spider has nothing to do with it," Yusei muttered.

Rudger smirked. "The odds always were in my favor."

"I don't believe that," said Yusei. "I can't believe that I was chosen for this for no reason but to lose."

"Wishful thinking," said Ruder. "You might as well say I wasn't chosen for this so I could lose. What do you think all of us Dark Signers were chosen for - to make you look good?"

Yusei scowled. "Why do you think you were chosen, then?"

"Destiny," said Rudger simply. "The outcome of this duel was inevitable from the beginning."

"You're insane," said Yusei, "and I'll prove it. My turn. Draw!"

Yusei closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and drew his next card.

_Please, not a monster..._

He turned the card over. He sighed withe relief and held it up for Rudger to see.

"It's a trap card," he said. "So much for your destiny."

"Humph," said Rudger. "Shows what you know.

"I know that I have a monster in my hand, so your spell isn't going to stop me from summoning," Yusei replied.

"Won't do you any good. The Earthbound God can't be attacked by your monsters," Rudger replied.

"I'll take my chances," said Yusei. "I'm summoning Speed Warrior! It may only have nine hundred attack points, but its special effect allows me to double its original attack power. That brings it to eighteen hundred. And since Uru can't be targeted as an attack, he's coming straight at you, and you only have seventeen hundred life points."

"I also have a trap card," said Rudger. "Roar of the Bound Gods! When you attack when I have a face-up Earthbound God on the field whose attack is higher than your monster's, your monster is destroyed and you take damage equal to half its attack points!"

Uru gave a nasty hiss and leaned down to snap its mandibles across Speed Warrior, slicing Yusei's monster neatly in half. It exploded, spraying smoke and stray parts everywhere. They rained down on Yusei, burning against his skin, and he cried out in pain as his life points dropped. For a moment, it was all he could do to catch his breath, and he was forced to lean on the railing to keep his knees from giving out from beneath him.

_This is going to be harder than I thought._

He tried to pull himself up straight again. It wasn't easy - his heart was still racing from pain and adrenaline. He took a shaky breath, then another, forcing himself to remember how his lungs worked. Rudger laughed at him.

"Hurts, doesn't it?" he said. "It won't get any easier. Better to be like me and be invulnerable."

Yusei glared at him. "Is that why you joined the Earthbound Gods? You wanted to be immortal?"

"Ha, nothing that fancy," said Rudger wryly.

Yusei scowled. If the man had to destroy untold numbers of peoples' lives, he could have at least done it for a better reason than "nothing that fancy".

"Then what was it?" he demanded.

"You really want to know? Then watch this," Rudger replied.

He made a gesture, and a spider dropped from the ceiling. Yusei flinched involuntarily; the creature was nearly as big as he was, with long hairy legs. Rudger stroked its bristly head affectionately and whispered something to it, and it scampered away, leaving a thick rope of webbing behind it. Rudger walked up this tightrope as briskly as though he walked on solid ground, and Yusei saw no choice but to scramble his way up as best he could.

He hadn't been thinking of anything but keeping up with Rudger, a task that wasn't easy when it involved clambering up a single strand of webbing, swinging upside down a dozen feet off the ground. By the time he reached the top of his climb, he was thankful merely to have a solid place to stand. It took a few moments for him to get his feet beneath him and catch his breath, and then to realize that he was sitting on the lip of the Momentum itself.

"What do you think?" Rudger asked. He was standing a few feet away, watching Yusei with a self-satisfied expression. "Nothing between us and the power of the Momentum. Now any wrong move and we stand a good chance of falling in. Either I get finished off by the same thing that killed me in the first place, or you die the same way your father did. Sound good to you?"

Yusei didn't say anything. He was looking at the Momentum. It was even more awe- inspiring up close. If he looked straight across the center of it, all he could see was a hazy shimmer in the air, and a strange light that seemed to turn everything the wrong color. If he looked straight down, though, he seemed to be looking into a bottomless pit, and that was impossible. There must have been a bottom to it somewhere. Without thinking, he edged a little closer, trying to get a better view. It seemed to him that he could see shapes down there somewhere, but it was hard for him to tell if they were small things close to him or massive things very far away, or if they were just tricks of his vision. There were sounds, too, almost like voices, murmuring things he couldn't quite make out...

It wasn't until he heard Rudger laughing that he was jolted out of his trance and realized that he was standing right on the edge of the well. Another inch or so and he would have overbalanced and fallen in.

"Hard to resist, isn't it?" asked Rudger. "It calls to you."

Yusei heard an echo of something in Rudger's voice, and he thought, _It got you too, didn't it?_ His intuition told him that Rudger wasn't just enchanted by this thing because of spending too many lonely years next to it; he'd been ensnared long before that, maybe even from the moment he first saw it. For the first time, Yusei found himself wondering what sort of machine his father had invented. Maybe it _should_have been destroyed...

_Focus, Yusei._

He gulped down another breath of air and managed to steady himself.

"I set a face-down card and end my turn," he said.

Rudger smirked, clearly believing that Yusei was out of options, and was merely digging in to defend himself as much as he could to forestall the bitter end. He might have been right. Yusei hadn't decided yet how he was going to get out of this one, and he wasn't certain he was going to. His mind whirled as he considered and discarded strategies, searching his memory for anything in his deck that would save him. Every plan seemed equally desperate. If only he had a better idea what he was going to draw next.

"Let's see how long you can stall," said Rudger. "Uru, direct attack!"

The spider god crept closer, bringing a chill air with it. Through his fear, Yusei found himself wondering if spiders breathed.

"Trap card!" he said. "Spirit Force! I can reduce all the damage I take this turn to zero and add a Warrior-type Tuner monster from my graveyard back to my hand."

Rudger laughed. "That's what you think! Counter-trap - Ground Wave! If I have a face- up field spell, I can negate the activation of a spell or trap and destroy it. And guess what? It looks like I just happen to have one."

Yusei gave a cry of dismay as his card vanished from the field. Uru loomed over him, its eyes glowing redly with anticipation as it skittered closer, clicking its mandibles together. Yusei had a horrible vision of those jagged pincers slicing him in half the way they had that poor monster, and his nerve broke. He screamed and tried to back away as the monster's jaws clashed at him.

His foot came down on empty air. Yusei flailed his arms, trying to grab for handholds that weren't there. Then he lost his balance entirely, and he toppled straight into the core of the Momentum.

He felt a lurch. There was a sound of tearing cloth, and then, amazingly, Yusei stopped falling. He twisted around and discovered that a grappling hook was snared on the hem of his tough denim jacket, leaving him spinning gently in midair. He managed to twist around, grab the rope, and pull himself into a more secure position than trusting a few threads to support him. Once he was hanging right side up, with his feet resting firmly on the hook, he spared the attention to look up and see who had saved him.

On the catwalk directly above him, Crow was holding on to the other end of the rope and grinning back down at him. Jack and Ushio stood behind him, acting as anchors, while the rest of the group watched anxiously.

"Hey," Crow called down. "You weren't planning on leaving without us, were you?"

Yusei smiled faintly. "It looks like I'm going to have to hang around."

"Holy crap, did Yusei make a joke?" said Crow. "The world really is coming to an end."

Rudger looked up at the crowd that had gathered on the bridge. He didn't appear to be at all bothered by their appearance; if anything, he seemed rather pleased to see them.

"Glad you could make it," he said. "Sit back and enjoy the show. We're just about finished."

"Not yet, you aren't," said Yusei. "Hey, guys - a lift?"

"We're on it!" Crow agreed. "Get ready to pull, fellas!"

Yusei's friends pulled until he was safely above the pit, and he swung and landed lightly on solid ground. He turned to Rudger.

"Shall we continue?" he asked.

"Your move," said Rudger.

"My turn - draw!" said Yusei.

He pulled his next card and silently held it up so that Rudger could see that it was a monster. Rudger laughed.

"So a hundred life points is still too much for you?" he asked. "I destroy Destiny Trigger to activate its effect - your life points are halved!"

Yusei winced. That left him with only fifty points to work with. There was no more room for error, and Rudger still had seventeen hundred life points. And a god. Maybe there really wasn't any way out.

But his friends were watching him. All of them had done the impossible to get this far; he couldn't let them down.

_All right. Time to see if this Signer thing is more than just legends._

"I'll play the monster I just drew," he said. "I'll set Zero Guardna in defense mode, and set another card face down."

"That's good," said Rudger. "I don't want you to give up just yet."

"Then what do you want?" Yusei replied.

For a moment, Rudger's expression turned pensive, almost sad.

"Wanting is for the living," he said.

"What sense does that make?" Yusei asked.

"You'll be dead in a few minutes," said Rudger. "Then you can find out. Your little defense monster isn't powerful enough to stop Uru. Prepare to die!"

The spider god surged forwards, ready to make another attack. Yusei smiled faintly.

"It isn't all about power," he said. "I activate Zero Guardna's special effect. By releasing it, I can reduce all my battle damage to zero for this turn."

His monster exploded, hiding him in an enveloping cloud of smoke that not even Uru's eight eyes could see through, and it was forced to retreat, hissing its displeasure. As the fog cleared, Yusei could see Rudger frowning at him, and he was vaguely puzzled. Surely the man should have been more annoyed at him for continually dodging his attacks?

"Gotta hand it to you," Rudger said calmly. "You've got a lot of tricks in that deck of yours. But stall all you want - I can wait. I'll set a card and end my turn."

Yusei said nothing. He drew his next cards and studied them.

_All I can do is wait and hope,_ he decided. Like it or not, he was going to have to put his faith in destiny just as Rudger was.

"I set two face down cards," he said. "Turn end."

"Looks like somebody is running out of options," Rudger remarked.

"It only takes one," said Yusei.

"Come off it," said Rudger. "You're down to fifty life points. A paper cut would finish you off. What do you think you're going to do?"

"I'm going to keep playing until one of us wins," said Yusei simply.

Rudger shook his head. "Stubborn. You're as bad as your old man."

"Why did you kill him?" Yusei blurted. "I've seen pictures. You all were _friends_. How could you turn against him that way?"

"It was fate," said Rudger simply. "He would have died anyway."

"You don't know that," Yusei snapped.

"I do," said Rudger. "Have you heard of the Yliasters?"

"Who are they?" asked Yusei. "What have they got to do with anything?"

"They have to do with everything," said Rudger. "They're powerful men, powerful enough to control the course of history. They allowed me a glimpse of the future."

"I don't believe that," said Yusei. "The future isn't determined yet. We'll make it ourselves by our own choices."

"What difference does it make what you believe?" Rudger snapped. "I'll trust to what I've seen with my own two eyes." In a quieter voice, he said, "I used to be like you, trusting blindly in my future. I thought being born a Signer made me special, that I would be able to do great things. Rex always believed it. He trusted me to take care of him, to protect him from everything..."

"Looks like his trust was misplaced," said Yusei.

"Don't you think I know that?" Rudger retorted. "I figured it out long before he did. He wanted to come work here, and I followed him because I knew he'd never get by without me, but I was never as good at this sort of thing as he was. Do you know how that feels, spending all your life thinking you're good for something, only to end up in a place like this where everyone already knows more than you and has done more than you'll ever accomplish?"

Yusei thought about how it had felt, going from his home in Satellite to the glitz and glamor of Neo Domino City and the Director's mansion. He thought of how small and ignorant it had made him feel. He had a fleeting pang of empathy for Rudger.

"Is that what made you do it? Jealousy?" he asked.

"That might have been enough," Rudger admitted. "But I hung in there... until things started to go wrong..."

Yusei narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"The Momentum," Rudger clarified. "What, did you think your old man never made mistakes? The system was unstable. The longer it ran, the more things went wrong - earthquakes, weird weather, you name it. Your father wanted to shut down the whole project until he could figure out what was causing the problems. It seemed like a godsend to me. I thought if I could figure out some clue as to what the problem was and how to fix it, I might finally feel like I deserved to be there, like I was doing some good to somebody. Instead, I met the Yliasters."

His expression went distant, like someone talking about a lost love. It gave Yusei the chills.

"They told me things," said Rudger. "About the Signers, about the Earthbound Gods, about the war that's been going on between them for millennia. They told me how I could become part of something greater than some science project."

"Destroying the world isn't something to be proud of!" Yusei shouted.

"The world was going to be destroyed anyway," said Rudger. "I saw it all. You can see it too, if you want."

"What do you mean?" asked Yusei suspiciously.

"Do what I did," said Rudger. "Gaze into the heart of the Momentum. That's what I did. The Yliasters promised me that I'd see with my own eyes the truth behind the battle between the Red Dragon and the Earthbound Gods."

"And what truth did you see?" Yusei replied.

"Death," said Rudger. "You can't escape it. Even if you win here, so what? Sooner or later, everything dies, everything gets destroyed. The world is coming to an end anyway. I'm going to usher in a new world, and something better than life!"

His pale eyes were bright with a wild light, his pupils contracted to invisibility, his face stretched into a crazed grin.

_Insane,_ Yusei thought.

And yet, the alluring light of the Momentum was hard to ignore. Surely he shouldn't judge until he'd tested the validity of Rudger's claims for himself. He knelt down and stared into the lights until they filled his vision. They flickered and danced, making him feel dizzy and faintly queasy, but he clung hard to the edge of the walkway and concentrated on keeping his balance.

Then, gradually, his vision began to clear a little, and it seemed to him that he was looking out over a landscape. At first, he thought he was looking at Satellite - but no, even Satellite wasn't so desolate. It may have been a ruin, but it was still a place of life. It was full of people, animals, even plants and trees. The scene Yusei saw now was devoid of all life, without so much as a gnat or a blade of grass to show for itself. The buildings were empty hulks, dark and crumbling. Yusei stared, trying to see any sign of movement, anything to tell him that all was not lost...

A glint of something metallic caught his eye, and he automatically turned towards it. The vision obligingly moved in closer, so that he could see what he was searching for. What he saw was a man dressed in flowing white robes, made dusty by his surroundings. He was resting in something like a floating chair made of plates of metal, hovering a few inches off the ground with no visible means of support. Yusei stared, trying to get a look at the man's face, but he was turned slightly away from Yusei and the light from a red sun was behind him, obscuring his features. Yusei could see that he was a very old man, though, with withered hands curled into uselessness by arthritis and hair gone gray with time. The skin of his throat and cheeks was webbed with fine wrinkles. Looking at him, Yusei felt a sudden deep surge of pity. He had the hunched and beaten look of someone who had lost all hope for anything good and was now waiting only for the end.

_He's the only one left,_ Yusei thought. _Everyone else is dead but him, and he's the only one left in the world..._

Then the man turned slightly, almost as though he had realized he was being watched. Yusei caught his breath and jerked back, and the vision vanished from his sight. It remained burned into his memory, though. He knew what he had seen. Just for a split second, he had seen into one of the man's eyes, and he had recognized it. He had seen two eyes just like it every time he looked in the mirror.

_It can't be. That can't have been me._

Yusei felt sick. His heart was beating too fast; his lungs couldn't draw enough air. The image he had seen was like a nightmare come to life: a world filled with impossible loneliness. To be the last and only living thing on Earth, to live without friends or family or even the strangers passed in the street, to go on every day wondering if there was something he might have done to save them and knowing there was nothing he could do to bring them back, to be torn between the desire to die and the burden of living because nothing else could do it in his stead... Yusei had felt all of that from the moment he'd made eye contact with that old man, and he knew he would never forget it as long as he lived.

He wondered, fleetingly, if what Rudger had seen had been like that. To spend seventeen years alone in the dark, dwelling on such despair, would be enough to drive anyone mad. To see how futile life could become like that might have been enough to convince him that casting in his lot with the gods of death was a better option.

"Did you see it?" Rudger asked. "You're fighting for a world where death means the end of everything. Is that really what you want?"

For a moment, Yusei could not think. His mind had always been his fortress, an endless source of battle plans and mechanical designs and well-considered words, but now there was nothing there. All he could find in him was a gut-level ache, a powerful longing to avoid that bleak future he had just seen.

"Yusei!" Jack shouted, his commanding voice shaking him free of his paralysis. "What do you think you're doing? Quit standing there gaping and fight!"

Yusei shook himself like one waking from a bad dream. Fight? Could he? Did he still have the heart in him to fight?

He looked up at his friends, who peered worriedly down at him from their perch on the bridge, and his mind started moving again. Memories of the vision inside the Momentum were gradually covered up by older, more reassuring thoughts: Jack and Carly's desperate flight from Satellite, Crow's way of turning up where he was least expected and most needed, Aki's fierceness and vulnerability, Rua and Ruka's unshakeable loyalty to each other, even Ushio and Mikage, living proof that things could change for the better one person at a time. He couldn't tell himself that their lives were meaningless.

"Sorry, Jack," he said. "I just needed to collect my thoughts."

Rudger snorted his disdain. "You might as well be collecting bottle caps, for all the good it will do you," he said. "My draw! I activate the spell card Earthbound Whirlwind! When there's an Earthbound God on my side of the field, I can destroy every spell and trap card on yours. All your defenses are destroyed!"

"Wrong," said Yusei. "I activate the trap, Stardust Road! I can negate the effect of a card that destroys two or more cards on my field and destroy it! Once I've done that, I can summon a Stardust Dragon from my extra deck!"

A spray of white lights appeared, converging on Rudger's card and enveloping it until it imploded like a dying star and scattered into bits. The pieces re-formed on Yusei's side of the field, forming the shape of a gleaming white dragon. Yusei's friends whooped encouragement, and he gave them a thumbs-up.

"The Stardust Dragon," Rudger murmured. "Been a long time since I've seen that."

"It might be the last thing you ever see," said Yusei. "I'm not done yet. I'll activate a second trap - Shooting Star! When I have a Stardust Dragon on the field, I can destroy one card you control, so I'll eliminate your Spider's Web."

"Hah, did you think I wouldn't realize you'd try that?" Rudger retorted. "Trap card, Nihility Hole! I can reduce the attack of one of my monsters to zero to negate the effect of your card and destroy it!"

He laughed as Yusei's card vanished from the field. Yusei simply watched impassively.

"I can't attack you this turn," said Rudger, "since my monster's attack is at zero now, but on the next turn it will go back to normal, and then not even your Stardust Dragon will save you. Enjoy your last turn, Yusei."

"If you insist," said Yusei calmly. "My turn."

He drew his card, glanced at it approvingly, and then turned back to Rudger.

"I feel sorry for you," he said, "but that won't stop me from doing this."

Rudger scowled. "What are you talking about, brat?"

"This," Yusei replied. "I play the spell card Battle Waltz. It allows me to summon one Waltz Token, which becomes an exact duplicate of one of my Synchro monsters - in this case, Stardust Dragon."

"Summon all the dragons you want," Rudger scoffed. "They still can't hurt my Earthbound God."

"No, but they don't have to," said Yusei. "All they have to do is to hurt you. Waltz Token, attack Rudger directly!"

"Nothing doing!" said Rudger. "I still have Roar of the Earthbound God in play. Your monster gets destroyed, and you take half its attack points as damage!"

"Not this time," said Yusei. "You're forgetting Stardust Dragon's special effect. I can release my dragon to negate your card's effect."

Rudger waved a hand. "Trap card, open! Glowing Image of the Guardian God! I can switch the target of your attack to my Earthbound God, and Uru has five hundred more points than your stupid token! Don't you get it, Yusei? No matter which way you turn, you're running towards your own death!"

"I don't believe that," said Yusei. "I'll choose my own destiny. By the effect of Battle Waltz, neither of us take damage from this battle, and Uru's attack drops to five hundred points for the remainder of this turn."

"Big deal," said Rudger. "You're all out of monsters. I'll destroy you on your next turn."

"There won't be another turn," said Yusei. "You're the one who's out of options, Rudger. I've won."

"What?"

"I still have one trap card left," said Yusei. "It's called Stardust Flash, and it allows me to take a Stardust Dragon that was sent to the graveyard by its own effect and summon it back to the field."

Rudger stared. "No... that shouldn't be possible."

"This is my proof that you are wrong," said Yusei. "My dragon and I defy the graveyard, and we defy your god of death, too! Stardust Dragon, attack Uru!"

The dragon roared and fanned its wings. White light streamed from it like the tail of a comet, filling the stygian room with pure, clear glow. Rudger flinched away, looking faded in the bright light, gray and indistinct as an old photograph, and Uru hissed and tried to hide itself amid its webs. Stardust Dragon cut through them all, burning them away with a stream of stellar fire. For a moment, the whole room shook with the dying god's scream of agony...

And then it was over. The spider webs fell away and disintegrated, the dragon vanished, and the world went back to what it once had been. Yusei stood silently, looking at Rudger.

"I'm sorry you wasted your trouble," he said.

Rudger was silent. He was kneeling on the ledge, his cloak fallen around him like broken wings, his head bent. He was so still that for a moment Yusei thought that even the uncanny half- life he'd possessed had gone out of him.

Then, quietly, Rudger began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Yusei demanded.

"Everything," Rudger wheezed, still laughing breathlessly. "You think you've won, don't you? But you're wrong. This was a joke, and you just fell for it."

"What are you talking about?" Yusei asked.

He stepped closer to Rudger. High above him, he heard the sounds of his friends shifting their feet, leaning over the railing to try to hear what was being said.

"It was a joke," said Rudger more loudly. He raised his head to look Yusei in the eye, grinning wildly. "Want me to tell you the punch line? Take a look at this."

He threw off his robe. Beneath it, his arms were bare, and Yusei gasped involuntarily. The man's skin was mottled and gangrenous, looking ready to fall away at the slightest touch.

"See that?" he said. "That's what happens to a Signer who changes sides. The power of the Crimson Dragon is still in me, as well as the power of Uru. They don't mix. They're poisoning me. Even if I had won that duel, I still would have died. Think about that for a minute."

Yusei thought. "If even winning that duel couldn't save you, then why...?"

"Because I'm going to die," said Rudger, "and I can't even count on my soul surviving, that's what bad shape I'm in. All I want now is for my death to accomplish something. I'm going to bring about the new age, Yusei, and I'm going to do it by defeating the Signers - _all_of them, in one fell swoop."

"But how? The duel..." Yusei began.

Rudger grinned. He raised his metal arm and opened a panel on it. A little light blinked inside, like one of Uru's red eyes.

"Who said anything about a duel?" he asked. "I'm doing this the old fashioned way." He gave a harsh laugh. "Look up, Yusei!"

Yusei looked up. Attached to the underside of the catwalk was a small boxy shape. Yusei had barely seen it before, taking it as only part of the structure of the building. Now there was a red light blinking on it, in time with the one on Rudger's arm.

_A trap... he was stalling... the whole duel was just... damn him, it really was just a joke!_

"Everyone, run!" he shouted. "There's a bomb! Run, before it...!"

"So long, Yusei," said Rudger.

Yusei had time to see Rudger's face split into one last wild grin of pure victorious joy.

Then everything exploded.

**To Be Continued...**


	32. The Dead Rise

**The Dead Rise**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Yusei tried to open his eyes. They felt gritty and sticky, and it took considerable effort for him to finally open them. He blinked, trying to get the world into focus. He felt as though something had hit him in the head, hard, and possibly a few other places for good measure. His mouth felt full of dust. He spat, coughed, and spat again. With a great effort, he managed to pry himself off the floor and look around.

The lab had withstood the blast better than he'd expected. A few of the catwalks had fallen down, and the computer equipment had been thrown into further disarray, but for the most part, it didn't seem to have done more than churn up dust and rubble. Yusei started to climb to his feet.

Then he stopped. There _was_ something wrong. The quality of light had changed. Everything had gone oddly pinkish, with a rippling light as though he were underwater, and the air was full of odd colored glints. He felt like he was standing inside some ghastly parody of a snow globe.

"Hello?" he called. "Anyone?"

There was a low groan from somewhere. Something in the rubble stirred, and Yusei raced across the room to help his friends dig their way out. Crow was the first to emerge, his red hair almost beige with dust.

"Man," he said. "Rough trip."

Aki pushed her way out of the wreckage of a collapsed catwalk and started helping the twins work free as well. Ushio lifted Mikage out of the debris and set her gently on her feet. Amazingly, no one seemed to be hurt. Yusei felt his misgivings deepen. Nobody could fall from a height like that and not even be bruised...

"Eurgh," Carly mumbled as she dug herself out of the rubble. "Where are my glasses?"

Jack found them a few feet away and handed them to her. They were liberally coated in dust, and as soon as she put them on, she had to take them off again. She rubbed at them industriously with the hem of her shirt, but it was as dusty as they were, and only managed to smear the dust around a little.

"Is everyone all right?" Yusei asked.

"I... I think so," said Ruka. "What just happened?"

"A time bomb, I think," said Yusei. "That whole duel was nothing but a tactic to get us all into position so we'd be caught when it went off... I should have realized he was up to something."

"Well, it's okay now, right?" said Rua. "I mean, we're not hurt or anything. And now we can all go home, right?"

"Hey, yeah, that's right!" said Crow, brightening. "He was the last one, right? We're in the clear!"

"I don't think so," said Yusei.

Everyone turned to follow Yusei's gaze. He was looking steadily in the direction of the Momentum - or rather, at the place where it had recently been. Now there was a hole, but a precise one, as though it had been built that way. In fact, it had the appearance of a mold that had been cast of the original and then turned upside-down, sunk into the floor. Yusei walked over to the edge and looked down, and could see something swirling at the bottom, as though some liquid were pouring out. Everyone else crept over to join him.

"Whoa," said Crow. "Is that... what it looks like it is?"

"We're on the wrong side," said Mikage in a flat, distant tone. "How could that be? That's not even possible."

"As much as I dislike correcting you, Miss Sagiri," said a new voice, "I'm afraid I must respectfully disagree."

Everyone turned to stare. Walking casually through the rubble and wreckage was a man, acting as calm as though he walked the halls of his own home. Yusei narrowed his eyes at him.

"Goodwin," he said.

"Hello, Yusei," Goodwin replied. "It would appear that you all were not as successful as I thought you might be."

"You set us up!" Jack snapped. "You sent us out here without telling us half of what was going on - we could have been killed."

Goodwin gave him a mirthless smile. "What do you mean, 'could have been'?"

There was a moment of silence.

"What? No!" said Jack. "I did not come all the way out here just to die! I'm not dead!"

"Not yet," said Goodwin. "But it's only a matter of a very small amount of time. This is the edge between life and death - the border between your world and the underworld. I'm afraid that when Rudger set off that explosive, it destabilized the boundaries and left things in a rather unsettled condition. Unless something is done very soon, I'm afraid all your efforts will be for nothing."

Yusei looked at Goodwin. It was a marvel that he'd even recognized him at all. The last time Yusei had seen him, he had been impeccably dressed in his tailored gray suit, his pale hair neatly tied back and gleaming like polished silver. This was a different man entirely. He was dressed in threadbare jeans, much stained and abused, and an equally worn T-shirt, so faded that it was impossible to be sure what color it had originally been. The boots he was wearing were made of ancient leather, worn and cracked. His hair had come unbound and fell in dusty tangles around his shoulders. He didn't look like a Director. He looked like an aging shaman who had decided to leave his woodland refuge and become almost - but not quite - civilized.

"Why should we listen to you?" Yusei asked. "You've done nothing but lead us on and play games with us since the moment you got involved with us. Probably before that."

"Point granted," said Goodwin. "However, you may notice that the situation has changed. For one thing, I am now essentially dead. My odds of recovery at this point are so slim as to not be worth considering. Furthermore, my brother is dead, which means I have no particular motivation to come back even if I could. I am free to speak to you from an entirely unbiased position."

"I don't believe it for a minute," said Yusei.

"As you wish," said Goodwin. "However, consider this: the underworld is a place antithetical to human life. If you stay here very long, you _will_ die, either gently or not-so- gently. I am the only one here who has the information you will need to keep yourselves from dying and to prevent the Earthbound Gods from descending on Neo Domino City and reducing it and the rest of the world to rubble. I leave it up to you to decide if you will take my advice or not."

"I got a better idea," said Crow. "Why don't you tell us what your angle is? Put all your cards on the table, you know? If you're dead, you got nothing left to hide, am I right?"

Goodwin regarded him for a moment. Then he laughed, a strange sound in that hellish atmosphere.

"You, of all people..." he said. "Very well. Cards, as you say, on the table. Though I doubt that you will like what you hear. Come." He turned and began walking towards one of the corridors. "We should be moving while we talk. The longer we stay in one place, the more danger we will be in."

"Danger?" asked Ruka, glancing around uneasily. "From what?"

"Restless souls," said Goodwin. "Spirits who are reluctant to pass on to their final disposition, or tormented thralls of the underworld gods. Either way, they may show some hostility towards the living."

"You mean there are _ghosts _down here?" Rua yelped.

Goodwin smiled thinly. "Oh, no. These are _much_ worse than ghosts."

"Oh, great," said Carly faintly.

"So, lemme get this straight," said Ushio. "You're dead? For real?"

"For all intents and purposes, yes," Goodwin answered impatiently.

"So you're not the Director anymore," Ushio persisted.

"I believe," Goodwin replied, "that being dead would effectively disqualify me from the position. Do you have a point?"

"Yeah, I've just got one thing to say to you," said Ushio, and he swung his fist.

It wasn't a very hard blow, all things considered - Yusei knew from experience that Ushio could hit a lot harder than that, if he cared to. This was simply meant to make a point. All the same, Goodwin wasn't expecting it, and it sent him staggering backwards into a wall. He slid slowly to the floor and sat there a moment, dazed and, for once in his life, looking rather undignified.

"Nice one!" said Crow.

"Ushio!" Mikage exclaimed. It was hard to tell if she was delighted or appalled.

"That's for hurting Mikage!" Ushio said.

Goodwin sat up carefully. He touched his jaw as if to make certain it was still properly attached.

"It's possible that I deserved that," he said.

"Damn straight," said Ushio.

Goodwin pulled himself to his feet and began dusting himself off, glaring icily at Ushio.

"If you have sufficiently vented your aggression," he said, "might I be permitted to continue?"

Ushio did not object, so Goodwin strode briskly through a nearby corridor, and the others had no choice but to file along after him. Ushio, perhaps feeling it wise not to test his luck, brought up the rear, and Mikage drifted back to join him.

"You really shouldn't have done that," she said.

"I know. I'm sorry. I just couldn't help myself," said Ushio contritely. After a pause, he added, "Next time, I'll hold the guy down and _you_ can hit him."

Mikage smiled a little. "I can live with that."

They continued on their way, following Goodwin. He seemed to know his way around, even with the uncertain light and the semi-ruined state of the passages.

"You must have a good memory," Yusei remarked.

"There are some things that stay with you," Goodwin replied. "I was very eager to work with your father, you know. My brother and I both were. You might not believe it, but we both truly believed in his research. We wanted to make the world a better place."

"Yeah, I sure believe _that_," said Crow, dripping sarcasm.

"Believe what you will," said Goodwin. "It doesn't matter anymore. The fact is that when the project was threatening to fold, Rudger went in search of the source of the problem, and encountered..."

"The Yliasters," Yusei put in.

Goodwin turned to look at him sharply. "You've heard this?"

"A little," said Yusei. "Keep going."

"Hm. Yes. The Yliasters," said Goodwin, resuming his stride. "Those who seek to control the flow of time itself. They persuaded Rudger to embrace the power of the Earthbound Gods, but his body couldn't take the strain of containing both that power and the power of the Crimson Dragon. To save himself, he severed his own arm and gave it to me for safekeeping. He made me promise that when the time came, I would seek out the other four Signers and prepare them for their battle."

"So all of this has been you keeping your promise to your brother?" asked Ruka.

"Not exactly," Goodwin said. "You see, I was fortunate enough to survive the initial blast, but when the dust had cleared, I found myself stranded on this island with no route to escape."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, hold up!" said Carly. "I always heard that you were from the mainland - you helped with rebuilding the city, and that's why they made you Director, right?"

"Fascinating, really, how these stories get out," said Goodwin. "No, I was here, trying to find some way - _any_ way to reach the mainland and fulfill my brother's last wishes. In the end, I began building a bridge."

There was a pause. It weighed heavily in the air.

"No," said Crow. "That isn't possible! No way!"

Even Yusei was taken aback. "You're the legendary D-Wheeler?"

"I suppose I am," said Goodwin calmly. "Not that I ever intended to inspire any legends."

"You mean you're from Satellite?" Ushio yelped. "That means all this time I've been taking orders from..."

"So that's what Divine meant," said Yusei. "He was blackmailing you, wasn't he? That's why you never had him arrested."

"Unfortunate but necessary," said Goodwin. "I had a promise to keep."

"You're despicable," said Yusei. "People were dying because you were protecting your reputation."

"They were going to die anyway."

"How can you say that?" Yusei demanded.

"Because I'd been planning on it," said Goodwin. He found a staircase and began picking his way upwards, carefully avoiding the broken treads. "You see, that escapade with the bridge and the winged D-Wheel... it was doomed to failure. To tell the truth, I'd intended it to end that way. To keep my promise, I would have had to lead people against my own brother, the one person left in the world I cared about. I had hoped that in dying, I would be able to be reunited with him. I probably would have died in truth, except that I was rescued by one of the Yliasters."

Yusei frowned a little. He was starting to get a bad feeling about these people.

"Who are they?" he asked. "Why are they involved in all this?"

"I couldn't say," said Goodwin. "I know very little about their true motivations. I only know that they saved me from certain death, and arranged for me to become the Director of Neo Domino City. From time to time, they have been in contact with me, and I have always accepted their directives. What they actually want... who can say? I only know that they had some design on the Momentum project that was unsuccessfully fulfilled by Rudger's actions, and I would appear to be their backup plan. They suggested to me that there might be a third option - a choice besides joining my brother as a Dark Signer and keeping my promise to defeat him. They suggested combining the power of the Dragon's Birthmark that Rudger passed on to me with the power of the Earthbound Gods. With the power of both the heavens and the underworld at my disposal..."

"You're insane," said Jack flatly. "Are you telling me that all this running around was nothing more than your attempt to rule the world?"

"You can't seriously convince me that you wouldn't take the opportunity if it were offered to you," Goodwin replied.

Jack glowered, but didn't bother to contradict him.

"Be that as it may," said Goodwin, "my brother was able to guess more or less what I was about, and apparently felt he needed to forcibly dissuade me. And here I am. Are you satisfied?"

"I just don't believe this," said Crow, disgusted. "You're a real piece of work, you know that?"

"He's a real piece of _something_," Ushio muttered, "but I'm not gonna say what in front of women and children."

"Gentlemen, please," said Goodwin. "Might I remind your lives and the lives of others are on the line right now? I would suggest discussing my deficiencies at a more favorable time."

"Do you have anything better to say?" Yusei asked.

"Only some information, and perhaps some advice," said Goodwin. "The world you are traveling through now is not the same as the world above, but on this level it bears some resemblance. There are two points in this city where the worlds connect: here in this lab, and at the temple in my manor. This exit has been destabilized by Rudger's explosives; it is highly unlikely anything could pass through it without sustaining massive damage. In the worst case scenario, it would collapse during the passage and leave whoever it was trapped between worlds. You need to get to the temple exit before your time runs out if you are to survive."

"Sounds easy," said Crow. "What's the catch?"

"The Earthbound Gods will naturally be attempting to stop you," said Goodwin. "You've already defeated their vessels. This exit has been damaged to the point where it is no longer usable, even for them. If you can reach the temple exit and seal it off before they reach it, there might still be a chance of stopping the whole thing before it gets out of hand. Only a chance, mind you. They won't let you reach it easily. But it's the only chance you'll get."

Yusei's eyes narrowed. "Why should I believe you? You could be leading us into another trap, for all we know. How are you even getting all this information?"

"I know it," said Goodwin, "because your mother told me."

The two of them held each other's eyes for a long moment. Yusei was the first to look away.

"Fine," he said. "I believe you. Let's go."

They went up, climbing stairs and more stairs. They left the mirror-Momentum far behind, but the light remained watery and pinkish, making Yusei's head ache. The air smelled of rust. At last, they emerged on the surface.

The world had changed. Where there had once been a flattened wasteland, there was now a city. It was made of black stone and black glass that glimmered dully in the diffuse red light. Otherwise, there were no lights anywhere, and no sign of life.

"What is this place?" asked Ruka softly. "It doesn't feel right..."

"It is... I suppose you could say it is the ghost of Satellite," said Goodwin. "A distorted reflection of the way it was before it was destroyed. Where did you park your transportation?"

"Back in the real world?" Crow suggested.

Goodwin glared at him.

"Approximate," he said.

To everyone's surprise - except, perhaps, Goodwin himself - their D-Wheels and Security vehicles were still parked more or less where they'd left them. There was a parking lot there that hadn't been there before, with faded yellow lines painted on it. Yusei could make out a few signs with flaking paint on them, reading, "This Space Reserved For" and then a smudge where the names should have been. As he walked closer, he discovered that his bike was parked in a place labeled with his father's name. He glared at it.

There was also a space labeled "This Space Reserved For Rex Goodwin". There was a D- Wheel parked in it. It had wings.

"I've missed this," he murmured, running a hand over the fender.

Crow stared. "Is that...?"

"Yes."

"Can I...?"

"No."

"Damn," said Crow. "You really are a tyrant, you know that?"

Goodwin ignored him. He climbed onto his machine and pulled on a helmet.

"Head for the bridge," he said.

"But there never was a bridge," Ushio protested.

"I know," said Goodwin. "That dream died long ago, so naturally it would end up here. We'll use it."

They began to drive. The sound of their engines seemed unnaturally loud in the silent city. As they drove, Yusei scanned the streets, strangely fascinated by this vision of the city as it had once been. He thought he saw flickers of movement, like shadows with nothing to cast them. They looked like people, walking slowly, as though half-asleep. Yusei wondered who they were. The shades of those who had died the night of the explosion, perhaps, still following their old routines without knowing they were dead? He felt a stab of pity for them. Maybe, he hoped, if the Earthbound Gods could be dealt with finally, these shades might be able to find some measure of peace.

There was a bridge. It stretched over the water in an uneven arch, bits of it sagging or twisting into zigzags, with pieces jutting out here and there where the materials had been a bit too long or too wide to fit properly. It was rusting and corroded, and looked like it had been there for centuries. It rocked slightly with each wave that lapped against it, but somehow it still held. It completely spanned the ocean between Satellite and the mainland, where more spiky black buildings could be seen standing against the blood-colored sky.

"Amazing," Mikage murmured.

"Never thought I'd see it," Ushio agreed.

"It's _beautiful_," said Crow. Yusei and Jack nodded silently.

Carly gave a little wail. "And my camera is still back home!"

They started over the bridge. It rattled ominously as they drove, but it took their weight. Yusei couldn't help but feel a thrill as he watched the waves rolling away beneath him. To be able to leave Satellite like this was the embodiment of so many dreams...

Jack drew level with him. He pointed at something off on the horizon.

"Look," he said.

Against the sky, something was moving. Yusei squinted, trying to get a good look at it. He had taken it for just another building, but it couldn't be - it was out over the water. It was moving, taking great, lumbering strides. Its movements seemed slow, but the sheer size of it made each footstep cover a great distance. Now that he was looking, Yusei thought he could see more shapes like the first.

"They're coming," he said.

"And I bet they aren't going to be happy to see us!" Crow agreed. "Hey, old timer, how fast can that rattletrap of yours go, anyway?"

In response, Goodwin accelerated rapidly, forcing everyone to pick up speed to catch up to him, and Ushio and Mikage in their heavy jeeps could barely keep pace. They all rocketed over the bridge and onto solid ground once more.

The city was not as they had left it. Where Satellite had been a ghost town, Neo Domino City looked like the result of toxic disaster. The air was heavy with smog there, and the streets were slick with some sort of oily substance, black with a rainbow-colored chemical sheen.

"Ugh, this place stinks," Rua complained. "What's wrong with it?"

"It's the city," said Yusei. "We always knew it was toxic. Now we're seeing it."

"Gee, I wonder whose fault that is," Crow said loudly.

Goodwin glared and started to say something, but Yusei cut him off.

"Stop it," he said. "You can't blame all of this on one man. The people had to be willing to believe what he was telling him for him to make a difference. And we know that even good people can believe the wrong things." He glanced back at Ushio and Mikage. "But they can learn, too. That's why we're all here, isn't it? To fix this."

"Maybe that's why you're here," said Jack. "I'm just trying to get out of being arrested."

"Sure you are, Jack," said Crow. "That's why you're - holy crap!"

Crow wheeled away suddenly, just in time to avoid running over a shambling figure. Another one lurched out of an alley, and Crow flicked out the wings of his D-Wheel to swat it away. It toppled over in a heap, but even more were shuffling forward to take its place. They were gray-skinned and dressed in rags, with empty sockets for eyes and mouths stretched into mirthless grimaces.

"What the hell is that?" Ushio exclaimed.

"I don't know," said Crow, "but I don't want it anywhere near me!"

"Don't let them touch you!" said Goodwin. "We have to get past them somehow."

"There's no room!" Mikage protested, and there wasn't. Zombies were choking the streets, filing in slowly from every direction. There wasn't enough room to get a D-Wheel past them, much less one of the bulky Security vehicles.

"Just drive over them!" Goodwin shouted.

"But..."

"Miss Sagiri, that's an order!" he shouted.

Instinct took over. Mikage put the pedal to the floor and shot forward, scattering and crushing zombies all around her. The jeep bounced over a curb, went out of control, and smashed into a wall. The maneuver had disoriented the zombies, however. They seemed to have trouble reacting to new situations, and they were still trying to take stock of this new threat when the others blazed through the space Mikage had created. They stopped alongside her as she and Aki climbed out of the ruined vehicle.

"Quick, get in!" Ushio shouted.

Mikage darted for the second jeep. The movement attracted a zombie, which lunged for her with arms outstretched. Mikage flinched away with a shriek.

Aki did something swift with a card, and a great thorny plant appeared in midair. It swung its tentacles at the approaching zombie and tore it to shreds before vanishing again.

"Damn," said Crow admiringly. "Hey, do you want to ride with me? Please?"

Aki ducked under the reaching arms of a second zombie and clambered onto his bike. Mikage managed to scramble into the passenger side of Ushio's jeep. She had to duck down to do it, not only because of the many outstretched hands trying to hinder her, but because when Ushio had stopped the vehicle, he'd managed to fish a wheel lock out of a compartment and was now swinging it like a club. The zombies crumpled like styrofoam wherever he struck them. As soon as Mikage was safely buckled in, Ushio swung his improvised weapon as hard as he could into the thickest cluster of zombies, then whipped the jeep around in a tight circle, scattering monsters left and right. Ruka, looking shaken but resolute, flourished a card and conjured up a roaring white lion that flung itself into the crowd and began shredding undead in its jaws.

But there were more coming. There were always more coming, blocking their escape at every turn. One of them grabbed Jack by the hem of his coat and managed to drag him off his D- Wheel. Carly shrieked as she found herself riding a suddenly out of control machine. It swerved and crashed, sending her sprawling. She hauled herself to her feet in time to see a zombie lurch towards her, and she swung her Duel Disk like a battle axe, ripping a hole in its front. Jack wrenched his way free, leaving his jacket behind, and tried to fight his way to her side. Yusei, seeing them, drove his D-Wheel through the space in front of him to clear a path.

"Get us out of here!" Carly wailed.

Jack glared at her. "I can't! The bike is broken!"

"Well, do something!"

"What do you want me to do?" he shouted back. "Just run! Get away!"

They broke into a sprint. Crow and Yusei circled them, trying to give them a free space to move. Then one of the monsters seized a lamp post and uprooted it, swinging it like a baseball bat. It hit the front of Crow's D-Wheel and sent him and his rider spinning through the air. Yusei swerved and managed to catch them, but his bike toppled from the impact and they all fell in a heap on the pavement. The zombies climbed over the wreckage of their bikes and lurched towards them. Yusei, Crow, Aki, Jack, and Carly huddled together, watching as the monsters slowly surrounded them.

Ushio's Security jeep barreled through the crowd. He turned to make another run, but some of the zombies pried up a chunk of the sidewalk and threw it, crushing the jeep's hood, and it sputtered to a halt. Ushio cursed and bounded out, swinging his makeshift weapon at the oncoming monsters. Mikage followed him, bravely clutching an emergency hammer and shielding the twins behind her. One of the zombies came too close, and she swung the hammer, crushing its head and felling it. As she did so, though, several more grabbed at her arm. She shrieked and tried to pull away, but their touch left her hand coated in grayish slime, and it stuck to her like glue.

"Mikage!" Ushio shouted, and tried to turn towards her, but another zombie caught hold of his jacket and tried to pull him away. Distracted, he swung a fist at it, and found himself caught. More zombies swarmed him, pulling at him, dragging him down...

At that moment, Goodwin drove in. He skidded to a stop, battering at zombies with his iron fist. He paused to glare at his two former employees.

"I told you not to let them touch you," he snapped.

"Easy for you to say!" Ushio retorted.

Mikage checked herself as if to make sure everything was still properly attached, then glanced at her companions to make sure they were safe as well. She frowned a little.

"Sir?" she said hesitantly. "Are you... all right?"

Goodwin did not look all right. A thin sheen of sweat showed against his skin, and his face was taut with strain. A strange whitish light flickered over him like phosphorescence.

"I'm running out of time," he said. "I'm not going to make it much further. You may have to go on without me."

"But sir..." she began.

"Don't argue with me!" Goodwin barked.

"I hate to break it to you," Ushio said, "but we aren't going to be going anywhere if this keeps up!"

It was true. Zombies already had them surrounded on all sides, a seemingly endless tide of them. At the moment, they were keeping their distance, wary of the team's makeshift weapons, but that wasn't likely to last long. Sooner or later, they were bound to overwhelm the group by sheer force of numbers.

Then there was a whoop from somewhere up above, and a cloaked figure dropped from an upper window and landed in the middle of a knot of zombies. It whirled about, swinging what appeared to be a lead pipe and knocking monsters apart like pinatas. They backed away quickly, not wanting to tangle with this dangerous newcomer. The man in black laughed, clearly enjoying himself as he carved a path through the melee. As he neared the place where Yusei and the others stood, he whirled in place, battering zombies left and right, and the hood of his cloak fell away. He turned and smiled, almost shyly, as the onlookers stared.

"Bet you didn't expect to see me again, did you?"said Kiryu.

"You son of a bitch, what are you doing here?" Crow exclaimed. "I thought you were dead."

"I am," said Kiryu seriously. "This is the underworld, after all. I pledged my soul to the Earthbound Gods, but that doesn't mean I'm going down without a fight!"

He charged back into the fray again, shouting, "Come on, this way!" and the others went pelting after him. He managed to carve a path as far as the broken-down jeep, where Ushio and Mikage were still fending off zombies as best they could. The twins huddled together, calling out warnings whenever something came too close.

"Can't you do that lion thing again?" asked Rua.

"I'm trying!" said Ruka. "It's harder than it looks!"

"I don't think the monsters care!"

Ruka turned to reply to her brother, but as she did, she heard him shout, and she looked to see a zombie had gotten hold of his arm. She grabbed his free hand and began trying to pull him away, but the creature's grip was so tight that Rua's hand might as well have been encased in cement.

Then something silvery flashed through the air, and the zombie pulled away with its arm severed. Rua yelped and shook himself, watching in horror as the hand clutching him melted into gray goo. Ruka looked up to see who had saved them, and found herself looking into the cold eyes of a man in a long black jacket.

"Demak?" she said.

He looked back at her, then turned away quickly.

"Don't bother to thank me," he said gruffly. "You saved what was most important to me. I'm just paying back the debt."

He was doing a good job of it, too. He carried a short knife in each hand, and he wielded them with precision and economy. Any zombie that came too near him ended up losing some of its parts. They learned very quickly to keep well away from him, and soon began to withdraw to safer territory. They ran into someone else coming from the other direction. She carried no weapons, but then, she didn't need them. All she needed were her own innate gifts, no longer hampered by a physical body. Power surrounded her like a veil of white light; anything that dared to touch her was consumed by the pale flame and reduced to ashes almost instantly. Her eyes shone pure blue even in the rusty light.

"Don't be afraid, Rua," Misty said. "I won't let them get you."

"Who are these people?" Mikage asked.

"I'm gonna guess 'backup'," said Ushio. "And that's our cue to get out of here. Come on!"

He scooped up both the children and made a break for it. Mikage hurried after him, dragging Goodwin with her. The group raced down the dark streets together, guided by their ghostly guardians. Kiryu led the way, gleefully pulverizing anything that dared to get into his path. Misty and Demak acted as rear guard, fighting shoulder to shoulder as if they'd worked as a unit all their lives.

But they couldn't be everywhere at once. A swarm of zombies mobbed them both at once, and a few managed to slip past their guard. Misty called out a warning, and Carly turned to see what was happening. As she did so, her foot slipped on the slimy road, and she toppled over to land hard on the pavement. Her glasses fell off skittered away from her. She gave a cry of dismay and groped for them, and immediately jerked her hand back as a zombie reached for her.

Someone hit it with a stick. The zombie gave a hoarse bellow and backed away from whatever had attacked it, and Carly stared uncomprehendingly for a moment before a hand materialized out of the blurry world and pressed her glasses back into place.

"Thanks," she said automatically, and then, "Yuji?"

He gave her a lopsided smile. "Yeah. Hi, again."

"You're alive?" she asked hopefully.

"No. Sorry," Yuji answered. He looked genuinely apologetic. "Actually, I think I'm supposed to be going somewhere else, but... you guys looked like you needed help. And I couldn't just walk off and leave Saiga like this... Whoops, watch your head!"

Carly ducked, and Yuji swung his cane again, battering off another reaching hand.

"Hey, less talking, more fighting!" That was Saiga, a few yards away, fending off monsters with what appeared to be a large wrench.

"You're here too?" asked Jack irritably. "What was all that drama up there for if you were just going to catch up to us now?"

"Excuse me for not knowing you were going to get yourselves killed," Saiga drawled.

"Hmph. At least now you're doing something useful," said Jack.

"Hey," said Saiga. "Not _everything _I do is stupid."

"Keep moving, guys," said Yuji. "We'll cover for you."

Carly scrambled to her feet, but then hesitated.

"Can't you come with us?" she asked.

"We'll go with you as far as the bridge," said Yuji. "After that... I don't think it's allowed."

"But if you guys want to stay down here, knock yourselves out!" said Saiga.

"We'll pass," said Jack. "Come _on_, Carly!"

They ran. The going was easier with extra help, and the team made good time. Aki stuck to the rear of the procession, keeping an eye open for anything that might get past their spectral guards. She felt responsible; she was one of the few people in the group who could do anything to keep the zombies at bay, and she was determined to do so for as long as she could. Every so often, she paused to summon a new monster and send it into the mob of undead. The work was tiring, but she forced herself to continue. She hadn't missed what was going on with the other members of her team, but she was under no illusions about the same thing happening to her. Divine was not going to come for her. She was going to have to finish this without outside help. She called up a fresh monster, and staggered as a wave of exhaustion washed over her. She tried to keep her footing, but her knees gave out, and she fell.

Someone caught her. She found herself being borne up by a pair of strong arms, she looked up in surprise.

"Save your strength, Aki," her father's voice said. "You're going to need it."

"Papa?" she said wonderingly.

"There's no time," he said. "Keep going. I'll help as much as I can... it's the least I can do."

Aki nodded, her throat tight, and gave him one last look before she turned and ran.

They fought their way through the city, pursued relentlessly by the gruesome underworld beasts. They ran until they were gasping for air, slipping on the oil-slicked streets and stumbling over cracked pavement. All around them, the glowing shades of their fallen opponents fought fearlessly, driving back anything that came too close. At last, they came to the center of the city, where a great black lake of scummy water lapped sluggishly against the shore. A long bridge spanned it, a narrow stretch of concrete without any walls or guardrails. At the far end, barely visible, was an island, shrouded in reddish mist. It looked so forbidding that the group paused to stare at it a moment.

The moment was broken by the sound of a body falling awkwardly to its knees, and they turned to see Goodwin crouched on the ground, breathing heavily. His clothing was dark with sweat, and the strange white lights flickered over him more brightly than ever.

"Sir?" asked Mikage. "Sir, are you...?"

He shook his head slightly.

"This is where I leave you," he said. His voice sounded hoarse and strained. "Yusei, lead them to the temple. Find your way to the center and summon the Crimson Dragon. It can help you escape."

"What about you?" asked Yusei. "What are you going to do?"

Goodwin smiled. It was the first truly happy smile Yusei had ever seen him wear, and it gave him a brief pang as he realized what it meant.

"I am going to see my brother," he said.

Yusei nodded. He turned away.

"Come on, everyone," he said. "We need to go."

They went. Goodwin remained where he was. He took one labored breath, then another. Then there were no more breaths to take. Slowly, he slumped forward until he was lying face down on the ground. He became very still. The zombies crept closer, as if uncertain whether or not he was going to jump up and attack them. He didn't move. The flickering lights on his skin went out. The zombies descended.

But they didn't get very far. Something lumbered into the crowd of them, swinging a heavy fist and knocking them aside as though they weighed no more than blades of grass. In the empty space that followed, Rudger knelt next to his brother's body. He reached out a hand and closed it around something invisible, and he pulled. Shimmering white lights gathered and coalesced into a human form. It looked surprisingly like Rex Goodwin - younger, less careworn, his hair unfrosted by time. He smiled.

"I knew you'd get here," he said.

Rudger gave a bark of laughter. "Nobody messes with my little brother."

Meanwhile, Yusei was racing across the bridge as fast as his feet would carry him. He had waited for the others to go ahead of him, making sure no one would be left behind. Now he paused a moment, looking back over his shoulder. What he saw would be burned into his mind forever. Behind him was the bridge, looking fragile as a thread, and beneath him, the spread of the dark lake. The red sky seemed to rise above him forever, and against it he could see the jagged outline of the underworld city. Behind them were the steadily advancing figures of the Earthbound Gods, rising so high that the skyscrapers looked like toys clustered around their feet. Between them and him was an unmoving line of figures, swathed in light, bravely blocking the path. The sight of them filled Yusei with courage, and he redoubled his speed.

They reached the far side of the bridge and found themselves standing on a lawn of dark grass, nearly black in the strange light. The group paused there a moment to catch their collective breath. If they hadn't been thoroughly exhausted from their run, they probably wouldn't have dallied. The manor was, if anything, worse than the city. If the city was diseased, this was the source of the infection. The grounds were choked with thorny shrubs and tangled vines, with a few broken sculptures lurking amid them, too chipped and covered in moss for anyone to be certain of their true form. The manor itself was in even worse shape. It appeared to have been consumed by fire, leaving only blackened beams and crumbling walls, with here and there a glint of metal showing where a light fixture or door handle had been. The skeleton of some of the upper floors remained miraculously intact, with some bits of flooring still dangling in midair, and the group moved slowly, hardly daring to breathe in case something came crashing down on them.

"So where is this temple the guy was talking about?" asked Ushio after a while. "You'd think if there was one, we'd have seen it by now."

"It's underground," said Yusei. "There was an elevator near here..."

"Damned if I'm riding an elevator in a place like this," said Crow. "I didn't even like it when the building _wasn't _falling down around my ears."

"We have to get down there somehow," said Yusei. "Goodwin wouldn't have told us to try it if there wasn't a way..."

"So where's this elevator?" asked Ushio. "I don't see a thing."

"I know it was around here somewhere," said Crow. "I mean, I was just there a couple of hours ago."

"This is a waste of time," Jack muttered. "We can't trust a word that man says. Instead of running away, we should be - watch it!"

That last was directed towards Carly, who, inquisitive as ever, had been picking through the rubble. A heap of it had suddenly given way in front of her, and Jack managed to grab her collar just before she managed to fall down a large hole. She grinned sheepishly.

"I found the way down!" she announced.

Yusei looked at the tunnel. It was steeply sloped, and looked like it went down a long way. He picked up a chunk of stone and tossed it, listening to it bounce away into the distance.

"Good work," he said. "Has anyone got a light?"

Crow produced his penlight, and Ushio fished a Security flashlight from somewhere beneath his jacket. With these to guide them, the team began their descent. It was stiflingly hot inside the tunnel, and soon all of them were sweating. The air was stuffy and hard to breathe, and the dust made them cough. Nevertheless, it was a relief to be able to go somewhere without feeling they were being pursued by anything. The first descent was steep and slippery, but after a while, it became a gradual incline. The ground changed from loose, dusty earth to solid stone, smooth and easy to follow. Yusei didn't trust it.

He wasn't sure how far they had gone before he heard the first crack. He held out an arm, blocking the path.

"Did you hear that?" he asked.

Everyone froze. There was another crack. A bit of dust trickled down from the ceiling.

"Damn it!" Crow exclaimed. "I _knew_ this was too easy!"

"Run!" Yusei ordered.

They ran. Bits of the ceiling rained down on them - at first, no more than dust, then pebbles, then chunks of rock large enough to hurt as they fell. There was no method to their retreat. They simply ran, dodging stones, tripping and regaining their footing and running some more. Inevitably, the twins fell behind, scrambling to keep up with their longer-legged friends. Aki realized they were missing and turned to look for them.

"Ruka! Rua!" she exclaimed, and started back.

"Keep going!" Ushio ordered, giving her a shove. "I've got 'em!"

Before anyone could stop, he rushed back towards the twins. At the same time, there was another loud _crack_, and a large chunk of the ceiling shifted, spilling shards of rock. Ruka screamed in fear, and Rua grabbed her wrist and tried to force her to run faster. The rock shifted again, and there was a cloud of dust that momentarily obscured everything from sight. Then Rua and Ruka came scrambling out, coughing and wiping dust from their eyes. Ushio didn't come out at all.

Then the dust cleared, revealing him standing in the middle of the tunnel with a slab of rock resting against his shoulders. He stood there like Atlas with the world on his back, every muscle straining, face pulled into a grimace. The ceiling shifted a little more, and he struggled to keep it supported.

"Ushio!" Mikage cried.

"Go!" he shouted back. "Can't... hold it much longer..."

"We aren't leaving you!" said Yusei.

"Yusei, you idiot!" Jack snapped. "If he lets go, the whole thing is going to fall in!"

"Let me try," said Aki. "Ruka, can you help me?"

Ruka nodded. Aki took her hand, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. A moment later, a nimbus of light flared around both of them, a deep ruby red for Aki shading into a paler pink around Ruka.

"All right, Ruka," said Aki. "Think as hard as you can about lifting that stone. Ready?"

Ruka nodded. The lights flared brighter, making their hair and clothing flutter. Light gathered on the ceiling, too, and Ushio visibly relaxed as the weight lifted. He made a forward lunge and a roll, then sprang to his feet and half-ran, half-staggered to rejoin the rest of the group. As soon as he was safely away, Aki and Ruka released their hold, and the ceiling caved in with an earsplitting crash.

But the team had made it to safety. Just ahead of them, the tunnel opened up into a wide chamber, the twin of the one where Yusei had first seen the hidden temple. It seemed in no danger of falling down, so the group paused their to collect themselves. Ushio leaned against a wall and slid into a heap. His face was still streaked with sweat, and he looked pale beneath his tanned skin. His friends clustered around him worriedly.

"Are you all right?" Yusei asked him.

"I think I mighta worked something loose back there," he admitted.

"I _knew _you shouldn't have tried this," said Mikage. "You're still hurt from that fall."

"I just need some time to catch my breath," he insisted. He tried to get up, winced, and settled down again. "Maybe a lot of time."

Yusei frowned, thinking. "We made it to the temple. All we need to do now is find a way in and then summon the dragon. If we can do that, we can come back and get you."

There was a moment of thoughtful silence. Yusei could guess what everyone was thinking. They had no way of knowing what would happen once they summoned the dragon, if they could even work out if there was any way to do it at all. They couldn't know for sure if there would be any opportunity to come back and fetch anyone. Ushio was too heavy to carry with them, and any attempt to do so would probably end in him being hurt worse than he already was. Leaving him behind in this world would be fatal.

"You guys go on," said Ushio. "I know you won't give up on me."

"You're sure?" asked Yusei.

"Got to be," Ushio replied. "Look, you're wasting time. Sooner you leave, sooner you can get back."

"I'll stay with you," Mikage offered.

"No," said Ushio. "You can't. You should go with them." Unspoken but clearly implied was the thought: _At least one of us ought to get out of this alive._

Mikage shook her head. "I'd just get in the way. Summoning dragons is a little out of my league. But someone needs to stay and look after you, in case those things come back. Don't argue! I'm still a Security officer, and it's still my job to protect people who need protecting."

"Yes, ma'am," said Ushio humbly.

"Then that's settled," she said. She turned to the others. "Just don't be too long, all right?"

Yusei nodded. "We'll be back as soon as we can. Take care."

He clapped Ushio on the shoulder, and then turned and gestured for the others to follow him towards the temple. They followed him uncertainly, some of them glancing back over their shoulders at the way they had come. Yusei couldn't blame them. The temple had a look of menace about it. It had been forbidding the first time Yusei had seen it, but that had simply been a sense of age and power that left him awed. The temple he was looking at now had an air of hunger about it, as though it were just waiting for everyone to wander into it so it could swallow them whole. For a brief paranoid moment, he wondered if this were a trap, and Goodwin was playing one last game with them all... but what could they do? The way out was blocked. If this didn't work, they were all out of options.

The other difference between this temple and the one back in the surface world was that this one had no stairs. There was only a tunnel, leading to some invisible point deep inside the temple. The shadows were so thick there that they seemed to have a weight and texture of their own; he felt he could scoop them up in his hands and stretch them like putty. It made his skin prickle.

"Are you ready?" he asked the others.

They nodded, with various degrees of resolution. Yusei turned back towards the door. He wished he could see what was beyond it. He knew he was going to have to go into it anyway, but it would have been good to know what to prepare for.

_But maybe there's no way to prepare..._

"All right, everyone," he said, keeping his voice steady. "Stay close together, keep your eyes peeled, and expect the unexpected."

Then he took a deep breath, and he went in.

**To Be Continued...**


	33. Alone

**Alone**

**By: SilvorMoon**

It was too quiet in the empty room. In that kind of stillness, Mikage could hear every tiny sound: the crackle of the torches, the occasional shifting bit of fallen stone, the sound of Ushio's labored breathing. She was sitting next to him, watching him out of the corner of her eye and trying to pretend she wasn't worried. He wasn't complaining, but she could see the lines of pain around his eyes, and it made her wonder just how badly he was hurt. If it was the ache of a fracture that still hadn't healed, that was one thing, but what if there was something bleeding somewhere inside him? He could die right here in front of her, and she wouldn't be able to do a thing.

The only thing she couldn't hear was the sound of the others. They hadn't been gone very long, and the temple seemed like it ought to carry some echo of their movements back to her, but the moment they had gone into that tunnel, she had lost all trace of them. As far as she could tell, they had simply vanished off the face of the earth... or wherever it was they were.

_And if they never come back..._

It wasn't fair. She'd been happy when she'd gotten up that morning. Things were finally starting to go well. It wasn't supposed to end like this.

"Do you think we're going to die?" she asked quietly.

Ushio shifted a little; she got the impression that he was rousing himself from some very deep thoughts.

"Someday, probably. But not today," he said. "We can trust those guys. They'll do whatever it takes. Besides," he added, "you promised me dinner, and you don't seem like the kind to go back on your promises."

She smiled weakly. "If we get out of this, I promise you I will personally make you the best dinner you've ever had."

"I'll look forward to it," said Ushio. "Don't worry, Mikage. It's gonna be okay, you'll see."

"You're not scared?"

He shook his head. "Not really. It's just... I wanted more time, that's all."

"So did I," said Mikage softly.

She leaned a little closer to him, and he obligingly put an arm around her shoulders.

"Come on. Let's not think about that," he said. "Tell me what you're going to do when all this is over and we can go home."

"What am I going to do?" she repeated. She closed her eyes and thought for a moment. "I am going to go to the most expensive chocolatier in the city and buy a box of chocolates, and I am going to fill my bathtub up to my chin with bubbles, and I'm going to sit there and read my favorite book and eat candy and soak until I turn into a prune. And I'm going to call in sick to work tomorrow and spend the whole day loafing around my room in my pajamas and being utterly irresponsible. I'm going to go to the florist's and buy all the flowers I can carry home and put them all around my room."

"Those sound like good things," said Ushio. "I was going to say I just want to go home, have a stiff drink, and get some sleep."

"This has been a bad week for you getting enough sleep, hasn't it?" Mikage replied.

"Yeah. Seems like the only time I'm getting any sleep is when something knocks me out cold," Ushio agreed. "Though, you know, all this crazy stuff... it starts to make me remember I'm not going to be around forever. If I get out of this in one piece, I feel like it might be time to start thinking about settling down and starting a family."

Mikage looked up at him sharply, and he gave her a reassuring smile.

"See, there's this kid I know who wants to be a Security officer when he grows up..."

She relaxed and smiled back at him.

"I think that's a wonderful idea," she said. "I'm sure you'd make a good father."

"You think so?" he asked.

"I know it," she assured him. "If you can get us through this, you can get through anything. I'd be a nervous wreck if you weren't here for company. How do you stay so calm?"

"Hey, I meant what I said," Ushio replied. "If it's gotta end, I wanted to be with you. And I am. As long as you're okay, I'll be okay."

Mikage felt her throat tightening, and she looked away.

"We have to make it home," she said. "We just _have_ to."

"We will, don't worry," he said. "Come on, don't start crying..."

"I'm not going to cry," she insisted. She sniffled a little and rested her head against his shoulder, but she didn't cry. After a moment or two, she relaxed and decided he was probably right. Worrying wouldn't change anything. All they could do for the moment was huddle together and hope for the best. As long as they could feel each other's heartbeats, they could know there was still hope.

* * *

Carly woke up with an ache in her neck and a gritty feeling in her eyes.

_Where am I? What happened?_

She blinked a few times, trying to get her bearings. She was lying on a cot in a small, bare room, and there was no one else around. The lights were low, and there were no windows, but there was a vague sound of people stirring that made her think that it might be early morning. After a moment, she realized she was wearing her old clothes - the ones that had been ruined on Satellite.

_Wait, that can't be right..._

She frowned a little, trying to remember. There was a dull ache in her head that prevented her from thinking clearly. There were a lot of jumbled images in her mind that she couldn't quite grasp - images of a ruined city, of bright lights in the sky, a dark fog, blue flames. There had been people talking very calmly about dragons and coming back from the dead. There was a man with violet eyes, almost too dazzling to be real...

Of course. A dream. She had been dozing here in the prison, and she had dreamed her way to freedom. Not just any freedom, either, but a freedom of adventure and excitement and romance. Naturally. Carly had always lived her life on the sidelines. If anything interesting was happening, she was there on the fringes of things, taking pictures. It had never been her place to get involved. She'd never had a lot of close friends, and she'd never had any sort of boyfriend. Of course her fantasy would be to get right into the thick of things, and not only meet interesting people but be an accepted part of their group.

_You should have known all along that it was too good to be real,_ whispered a little voice in her mind. _Nothing like that could ever happen to you._

She curled up into a little ball on her cot and closed her eyes, wishing she could go back to dreaming. Already the details were becoming fuzzy. Soon it would be all but forgotten. All that would be left was the cold, hard reality: that she was trapped in a jail cell, and she was probably never going to get out. She was never going to achieve anything special - she wasn't even competent enough to be a notorious criminal, and she would certainly never be accepted back into normal society now that she was marked. All of her dreams were out of reach now.

Especially Jack. He had been everything she could ask for in a man... everything but real, apparently. No one like him would ever really love her. Even if they did, it wouldn't matter, because she didn't want an imitation, she wanted _him_, and he didn't even exist. No matter what happened next, she would never see him again. And yet, she could almost hear his voice, feel the warmth of his body next to hers. She wanted to be with him so badly it hurt, but she couldn't.

_You might as well give up,_ the little voice whispered. _What's the point? You could never be happy without him, now, and you can never be with him. You'll never achieve anything worth having. There's nothing left for you..._

Carly gave a little whimper and pulled the blanket over her head. It didn't help.

_I wish I could just disappear..._

* * *

She was alone.

Aki looked around, puzzled. One moment, her friends - well, call them companions, since she'd only known most of them for a few hours - had been all around her, and now they simply weren't. She hesitated, trying to get her bearings. There was gray light filtering down from somewhere, but it was too diffuse to give her a good idea of where she was. She blinked a few times, wondering if her eyes were playing tricks on her. Even as she watched, the air seemed to clear as though a mist had burned away in the sun.

What she saw surprised her. She knew that a moment ago, she had been in something like an ancient temple. Now she had made the jump into the middle ages. She seemed to be standing in what looked like the great hall of a castle. The room was lit by candles set deeply into the stone walls, but Aki could see the faint outlines of a high arched ceiling from which dusty battle flags hung like cobwebs. There were weapons mounted here and there as decorations, and a few suits of armor stood menacingly against the walls, seeming almost to move in the flickering candlelight. It would have, Aki thought vaguely, made a good set for a classic monster movie - Dracula, maybe, or Frankenstein.

"How did I get here?" she asked.

"Technically speaking, you didn't," said a voice near her.

She froze. She turned around very slowly. Standing behind her was... something. It was human shaped, more or less, but it was entirely black and transparent, like a shadow, and if she stared at it too long, she started to feel as though she was looking at a tunnel that went a long way down. It gave her the same feeling she sometimes got when she looked over a railing from somewhere very high up, and felt the magnetic urge to throw herself off the edge. This shadow was hypnotic that way. She wanted to rush at it, let it embrace her, pull her into its depths...

"Who are you?" she asked.

"No one of consequence," the shadow replied. "Though perhaps you would feel more comfortable if I resembled someone you know?"

The shadow's outlines shifted a little, and suddenly Aki found herself looking at a perfect replica of Divine, identical down to the laugh lines around his eyes. It even had the scent of his cologne. She knew it was not him - she knew the feel of his aura, after all this time. He'd always had a sort of a warmth about him, like something simmering on a stove. This thing only felt cold and still, and yet the resemblance was so close that it made her breath catch in her throat.

"I thought that would help," the man said, and it even had his smug tone. "Perhaps now we can talk."

"I don't want to talk to you," Aki snapped. "Especially not while you're pretending to be him!"

"I'm afraid this isn't the kind of place where you get a choice in these things," the false Divine said. "No, this is the place where you get everything the way you _don't_ want it."

"I don't understand," she said.

"Then let me make it simple for you," the man replied. "You are a witch, yes?"

"No!"

"Yes," the man insisted. "Don't try to lie to me, Aki. I know the truth about you. I know _everything_ about you. You used your psychic powers to hurt people. You dueled them for the express purpose of hurting and terrifying them."

"Divine told me to..."

"Don't blame everything on Divine," said the man. "You were doing it long before he came into the picture. We could ask some of your schoolmates, for example. You enjoyed hurting the people who teased you, didn't you?"

Aki didn't answer, but only looked away, ashamed.

"That's right. They were only children - not much older than that little girl you befriended," said the man. "They didn't know any better. They were afraid of you, and trying to scare you away from them the only way they knew how. You were the one who chose to lash out at them."

"I didn't know any better, either!"

"No, but you did know better when you met Divine, and he started suggesting that you should go out and attack people," the man continued. "You did it because you enjoyed it. You still enjoy the thought of it, don't you? Even now, there's still that little part of you that is sorry you have to stop. Fighting is much easier, isn't it, than trying to make friends."

"I'm not going to do it just because it's easier," said Aki. "I _am_ going to get better. I'm going to stay friends with Ruka and Yusei and the others. They'll help me change."

"No, they won't," said the man. "You want to know why? Because they aren't here."

"I'll find them.

The man laughed. "Don't you get it? You're in the underworld, now. Time and space are no longer applicable concepts. They could be on the other side of the universe. They could all be dead and gone and you wouldn't know it. How do you think you're going to find them?"

"I... I don't know."

"That's right, because you won't. You've missed your chance," said the man. "Even if you could have been friends with them, it's too late now. Now you're all alone - alone and powerless."

"What?"

"Where is your deck?"

Aki looked. The Duel Disk she'd been carrying was gone, as were the cards that it had contained. She glanced around, as if she thought she might have dropped it.

"It won't do you any good anyway," her companion continued. "Your power comes from the darkness your soul contained, and now that you've started caring about people again instead of wanting to hurt them, your powers have lessened considerably already. You used up most of what you had left trying to save that fool of a Security officer earlier."

Somewhere in the distance, there came a sound, and Aki turned to try to identify it. It sounded like the clamor of many voices. She walked to a window and peered outside. It was near sunset, growing dark towards the east. She thought she could see smoke rising from somewhere, and the occasional flicker of flame.

"Torches," said the man, nodding approval. "Typical way of getting rid of a witch."

"They're coming for me?" she asked, appalled.

"Yes. This is where you go to be punished, Aki, and the traditional punishment for witchcraft is burning. That's what they'll do, when they catch up to you," said the man calmly. "And so, you have two choices."

"Tell me," she demanded.

"One is to remain loyal to your friends," said the man. "Stay true to their memory and resist becoming what they believed you aren't. The more you cling to them, though, the weaker your powers will become, and the more the mob will be able to hurt you. Or, you can give in to your desire to strike back. Fight them off. Kill them. Give yourself over completely to the monster you are inside."

"I will never do that!" Aki said.

The man only smiled. "This is eternity, Aki. You have a long time to make up your mind."

The sound of voices became louder. The torches were closer now, a line of fire across the landscape. Aki's companion smiled at her, looking satisfied.

"Ah," he said. "Here they come now."

* * *

The tunnel had started growing brighter some time ago, gradually shading from black to gray. Ruka had been encouraged, and had picked up her pace, but so far the only improvement was that the gray around her had taken on more definition. She seemed to be walking through the corridor of an office building, not unlike the one Aki had lived in until recently. Even with all the negative associations attached to it, Ruka still would have preferred that one. Divine might have been thoroughly unpleasant, but at least he'd had a sense of style; everything in his building had been attractive, even beautiful. This was the most drab hallway Ruka had ever seen. It had a thin gray carpet laid over what felt like concrete, which did nothing to cushion her feet but did serve to muffle the sound of her progress. The walls were a paler gray than the carpet, unrelieved by a single window or picture, only slate-colored doors set at regular intervals. The ceiling hung low and oppressive as a thundercloud. Florescent lights glowed dimly, flickering and occasionally going out altogether. The whole thing made Ruka feel drained just from being in it.

At the end of the hallway, she came to an elevator. There were a few people waiting to get on it, men and women in business suits. Ruka stared at them uncertainly; there was a strange sameness to them. They were all about the same height, the same build, and had the same sort of roundish faces and brownish hair - a little longer for the women and shorter for the men, but in the same sort of no-nonsense style. They all wore the same sorts of dark suits, white shirts, and black shoes, the men with gray ties and the women with thin gray scarves. They stared dully at the elevator without speaking.

"Um, excuse me?" said Ruka. "Can you tell me where I am? Where does this elevator go?"

No one answered her. The elevator chimed softly and opened its doors, and everyone marched on. Ruka dithered for a moment, but when the doors started to close, she darted between them and just barely made it inside.

The elevator went up. It stopped several times, letting people get on and off, but each time it opened its doors it revealed only another long gray hall identical to the first one. Ruka continued hoping that eventually the elevator would take her to a lobby or something that looked like it might lead to an exit, but it only rose higher and higher, and she could see no buttons to press to change its course.

At length, the elevator reached what must have been the top floor, because it stopped and didn't move again. Ruka looked warily out the doors. They led to the dreariest hallway she'd yet seen, with a bare tile floor and walls that were painted nearly black. There were lamps on the walls, but they were so thickly shaded that they might as well have not been on at all. At the far end of the hall was a single door, open slightly so that a sliver of light could be seen through it. With nowhere else to go, Ruka walked towards it.

Beyond the door was an office. It was a bit brighter than the rest of the building, owing to a number of computer screens set up along the back wall. Otherwise it was as grim as everything else Ruka had seen - hard, gray, and strictly functional.

She had only a moment to take it all in, however, before someone pounced on her. She screamed.

"Let me go, let me go!" she said, struggling to escape the grasp of whatever had taken hold of her.

"Now, that's no way for a polite young woman to behave," said a voice behind her.

Ruka finally managed to calm down enough to look. Gripping her shoulder with a set of perfectly manicured red nails was a woman. She had a severe, sharp-featured face, with thin lips and a blade of a nose, and narrow eyes peering out from behind a pair of square-rimmed glasses. Her black hair was pulled back into a tight bun. She wore a black suit with a pair of very high heels and a short black skirt. She looked like the sort of person who lived to deliver scoldings, and Ruka felt herself involuntarily quail away.

"It's about time you got here," the woman was saying. "I was expecting you a long time ago. Now that you're here, let's get you to work, shall we?"

With her hand still tightly gripping Ruka's shoulder, she herded her towards the desk, where Ruka discovered that there was a stepstool already in place to help her climb into the big leather office chair. The desk was covered in papers, neatly arranged into piles, so high that she couldn't see over them.

"This can't be mine - I can't do all this," Ruka protested.

"Of course it's yours," the woman replied. "Who else is going to do it? Really, you've been doing it all along. I've just organized it all neatly for you now. You should be thanking me."

"I don't understand," said Ruka.

She stared at the papers. They all had labels on them - things like "school" or "home", or in one case, "Rua". With a sinking feeling, she turned to look more closely at the screens behind her. Now she could see that one of them was showing a view of her house, another of various points around Neo Domino City, and another showed the monster world.

"You see? It's all very straightforward," the woman said pleasantly. "Here are all your responsibilities. You'll have to make the household decisions, of course, since your parents can't be bothered and the hired help doesn't care. Then there's your schoolwork - that's very important! You're going to have to look after Rua's end of things, too - he's so irresponsible, you just can't trust him to do anything without your guidance. And there's your psychic training, too. Don't think that just because Divine is gone, it means you can neglect your powers. And there's Signer business now, too. You have a responsibility to protect your city, so you're going to have to make that a priority. Then there's the monster world - you're the only human who can travel there, so that's your sole responsibility as well."

"But I can't do it! Not all by myself! I'm just a kid!" Ruka protested.

"Of course you can," said the woman briskly. "You'll just have to make some sacrifices - your friends, your hobbies, your free time, unimportant things like that. Don't worry, I'll be right here making sure everything gets done."

"Who are you?" Ruka demanded. "Go away! Leave me alone!"

"Oh, but I can't," said the woman. "You see, I'm part of you. I'm your sense of responsibility - your inner adult, so to speak. No matter how far you run away, you'll always know that I'm right. Your responsibilities are always going to need taking care of. You'll always have to look after a home, keep watch over your brother, defend the two worlds, and still find time to make good grades in school and get into a good college and find a job... it never ends. You might as well resign yourself to the fact."

She snapped her fingers. The chair Ruka was sitting in suddenly sprouted chains, which twined around her and bound her tightly. She shrieked and struggled, but they didn't give so much as an inch. The dark woman smiled sweetly at her.

"That's so you won't be tempted to shirk your duties," she said. "Now, get to work."

* * *

The first thing Crow noticed was the scent of smoke. The air was thick with it, and he coughed, his eyes watering. He dug out a handkerchief to blow his nose and squinted into the murk. It smelled like something big had been burning not that long ago, and had left behind a lot of scorched, damp wood and melted plastic. A house fire, maybe. Crow felt his stomach wrench, and he tried to ignore it.

_There aren't any houses down here, genius. You're in some kind of screwed-up underground temple. Where are you going to find any houses?_

Though come to think of it, he didn't quite seem to be in a temple, after all. The walls appeared to have faded away into the smoke, and the ground he was walking on had more in common with modern-day asphalt than ancient stone flooring. He looked up and was only mildly surprised to see stars, flickering in and out of view between wisps of smoke.

_It's not real,_ he told himself. _It's just another weird game these guys are playing with you. Don't be fooled._

That was a fine way to think, but he wasn't sure how much good it was going to do him. If what Goodwin said was true, then what he imagined was true here was likely to take on reality. Whether something was real or not wasn't much of an issue if it would kill him anyway. Crow resolved to be on his guard. The trouble was, he could imagine a lot of things, and he wasn't sure how he could guard against all of them.

The light was rising a little as the smoke cleared, and he became a little more aware of his surroundings. They looked a lot like home, which didn't set his mind much at ease. In fact, it gave him a nasty feeling that the world was trying to lull him into a false sense of security. He could see the looming shapes of broken-down buildings on either side of him, and a road leading straight ahead of him, never swerving. There were no side-streets or alleys, no gaps between the buildings, not even one wide enough to let a cat pass. The only easy way out was to follow the road to its destination, a ruined building on the top of a hill - a warehouse, by the look of things. It was silhouetted against the night sky, and smoke was still lazily drifting upwards from it.

Crow didn't want to go in. He wanted to turn around, or to sneak through one of those old buildings, or go anywhere but there, but he had a suspicion that if he did, something else would spring up at him. He might as well face up to something where at least he had a suspicion of where it was leading.

He went up the hill. The scent of the smoke grew heavier, thick in the damp air, but he ignored it and kept climbing. The closer he got, the more clearly he could see that it was, in fact, a warehouse, or at least the burnt shell of one. Most of the roof was gone, and charred beams showed against the sky like the ribs of an animal. The door creaked and rained down a little shower of soot on him when he opened it. The inside was dark, but the general shape of it still felt vaguely familiar.

"Hello?" he called. "Anyone here? Because if you aren't, that's totally okay, I can live with it..."

There was a dull scraping noise, like something heavy being dragged across the floor, and then a thump. Then there was another scrape. Something was moving, slowly and painfully, through the shadows. Crow's nerves screamed at him to bolt, but fascination held him in place. He watched something lurch its way from the back of the building and into the wan starlight.

He wasn't prepared for it. He thought he was. He was ready for every sort of horror he'd ever heard of, every creature out of a ghost story anyone had told him, every horror-movie monster he'd ever seen. He was even prepared for one of the things he'd seen that night, another eldritch abomination straight from the depths of hell. He thought he could handle that.

What he couldn't handle was running into someone he knew.

The thing was human. The charred remains of clothing still clung to it, and it still had most of its hair. It? Him - the body was still clearly male. Only the state it was in made him want to think of this person as "it". The man had clearly been inside the building while the fire was burning, and he had suffered for it. Everywhere his clothing had been burned away, his skin was blistered or blackened. Most of one foot was gone entirely, leaving little more than a stump. Parts of his arm had been burned down to the bone. Most of his face was still there, though, and his eyes were still the same as they had always been.

"Crow," he said.

Crow swallowed hard, his mouth dry. "Pearson."

"So you ended up here," said Pearson. "Who would have believed it?"

Crow couldn't answer. When Team Satisfaction had broken up, and Crow had been cut off from the people he'd loved most, Pearson had been his teacher, mentor, and friend. He had been the one who had given Crow the Black Bird. He had also died in the fire that had burned down his warehouse home and everything in it.

"What's going on?" Crow asked.

"Can't you tell?" Pearson asked. "This is the underworld. Hell, if you want to call it that."

Crow shook his head. "That can't be right. You wouldn't be in hell. You were a good person - one of the best people I ever knew."

"So what does that tell you?" asked Pearson calmly.

"It doesn't tell me anything!" Crow snapped.

Pearson shook his head. "You can do better than that, Crow."

Crow thought about it.

"Oh, I get it," he said. "You're not real, are you? You're some kind of figment of my subconscious, or something."

"Something like that," Pearson agreed. "I'm your failures."

"My what? Listen, buddy, I haven't failed yet!"

"You can't lie to me," said Pearson tiredly. "Look at me, Crow - really look at me. Do you think this would have happened if you hadn't failed?"

He reached out one of his burnt hands, and the stench of charred skin wafted from him. Crow tried to pull away, but that skeletal hand had a more than human strength.

"You weren't there for me," said Pearson. "You could have done more. You could have saved me. If you had been there just a few minutes earlier..."

"It wasn't my fault!" Crow protested. "I didn't know!"

Pearson went on like Crow hadn't spoken. "And what about Kiryu? You left him behind, you know. That was what started it. Once you were gone, the team broke up. Kiryu wouldn't have tried that stunt with the bomb if you hadn't walked out on him. You could have tried to stay and fix matters, but you gave up."

"He was out of his mind anyway," said Crow. "He wouldn't have listened to me..."

"Are you sure? Did you try?"

Crow was silent.

"Of course you didn't," said Pearson. "Unless you want to count that prison-break business. You know what happened there, don't you? Crow the big damned hero had to stage a riot just to set one man free, and you couldn't even follow through with that properly. Look where that got you. You're all flash and dazzle, Crow. You can't do anything if it doesn't involve showy gestures and swinging in on chandeliers. When it comes to following through, you're a failure. You never finish anything you start. You always let it go wrong."

Crow shook his head in denial. "The kids - I promised you I'd take care of them, didn't I? I haven't failed at that!"

"Haven't you?" asked Pearson, raising an eyebrow. "Where are they now?"

"With Martha, I guess?"

Pearson shook his head. "They're gone, Crow. Did you think she'd be able to protect them from the fog? From the gods themselves? Did you ever once think to check on them to see if they were all right? Of course not, because you were too intent on being a hero to care."

"I thought they were safe!" Crow protested. "My friends needed me!"

"To do what? You weren't a Signer. You still aren't. You only have the power you stole from the man the Crimson Dragon chose as the rightful owner. It was never yours to choose," said Pearson. "Those kids were your responsibility, not the Dark Signers, but you would rather play hero. You weren't there to defend them. Now they're gone."

"No!" Crow protested. "I don't believe you!"

"You do," said Pearson. "I'm just a part of your mind, remember? I couldn't say these things to you if you didn't believe them."

Crow stood silent, uncertain what to say. The specter had a point. Regardless of whether or not the things he was saying were true, the fact remained that on some level, Crow thought they might be, and in this hellish place, it was hard to think of any other alternatives.

"So what?" he said at last. "Even if all that's true, what do you expect me to do about it now?"

"Do?" asked Pearson, raising an eyebrow. "I don't expect you to do anything. That's the point. This is hell, Crow. You don't make it here if you have any hope left to change things. Here, you just go on knowing everything you got wrong, knowing you can't change it... and suffering the results."

Flames flared up. Crow screamed, trying to back away from them, but they surrounded him. The wood that had been damp and burned out before was suddenly whole and dry again, but the flames were eating it with an unnatural hunger, blazing white-hot. The heat was unbearable, and Crow struggled to break Pearson's grip, thinking only to get away. Then the flames reached his ankles and caught on his clothing, and he could feel it searing his skin. He screamed with new intensity.

"You can't get away, Crow," he heard his old friend's voice saying, calm and flat above the raging fire. "This is only what you deserve..."

* * *

A rush of cool wind blew past Jack, shocking him back to his senses. He felt fuzzy in his mind, as though he'd been letting his thoughts wander, but he couldn't remember what he'd been thinking about. The breeze blew past again, refreshing without being chilly, and he took a deep breath of it, trying to regain his senses.

He was standing at his front door. He stared at it a moment, trying to make sense of it. This was the door to the theater, the one he'd walked through every day from the time he'd set out to live on his own. It had never felt like a home to him, but it felt familiar and secure, and he didn't like the sense that something was wrong with it now.

"Something funny is going on around here," he muttered.

Instinctively, he looked around for his companions, and found himself alone. He frowned. Independent as he was, he had no doubts about his ability to take care of whatever presented itself to him, but the fact remained that people were _supposed_ to be there, and knowing that now they weren't and there was no reason for them not to be unsettled him.

He went inside. The theater was exactly as he remembered it, dark and musty smelling, full of battered old chairs and bits of fallen ceiling. The stage was still there, too, with the same old throne on its podium. The moon was shining brightly through the holes in the roof, so it took Jack a moment to realize that there was something wrong about the light. There was a single white spotlight suspended from the ceiling, shining a cone of light onto the stage. Jack followed the line of it to his throne, and realized there was someone sitting in it.

"Get out of my chair," Jack said.

The figure stirred. It was a man, dressed mostly in black, with bits of violet trim around the edges of his coat. It was a long coat, the sort that would sweep out dramatically behind him as he walked - very much, in fact, the kind of coat Jack had always favored. The man had blond hair, and a proud, narrow face, handsome in a haughty sort of way. The only jarring feature about it was that its eyes were a vivid blood red. Other than that, the face was a perfect replica of Jack's own.

"What makes you think this is yours?" he asked.

"Don't play games with me," Jack snapped. "Who are you? Why did you bring me here?"

"It's obvious, isn't it?" the man replied. "I'm you. The greatest part of you, anyway. The part that matters."

"I doubt that," Jack snapped.

The man laughed. The sound made Jack grit his teeth; did he really sound so condescending?

"Doubt all you want, Jack. You'll see the truth for yourself soon enough," said the doppelganger. "The fact of the matter is, I'm your pride. You couldn't get anything done without me. Of course I deserve to sit in this throne more than you."

"If you're part of me, then I deserve it just as much as you do," Jack snapped.

"Keep dreaming," the man said. "Without me, you're nothing. Without you, I can do so much more. You've gotten soft, Jack. Worrying about friends, about a _woman_. I thought you knew better than to fall for that sort of romantic nonsense."

"Where is she? What have you done with Carly?"

"I haven't done anything," said the man. "She's not here. She's dead."

Something colder than the wind went through Jack's mind.

"She's not," he said. "You're lying."

"She is dead," the man insisted. "Her body wasn't strong enough to make the journey through the darkest part of the underworld. She might have been able to share a bit of your power, but she isn't a true Signer. Your strength alone wasn't enough to sustain her here, so she came apart under the strain. What's left of her now... maybe it's for the best that you can't see her. There isn't enough left to recognize."

"No! I don't believe it! I won't!"

"You should let it be a lesson to you," the double went on smoothly. "She followed you out of love, and look where it got her. She loved you more than her own life, and you destroyed her without thinking twice about it. That's how love works. You've always known that. Give your heart to another and they control you. Only by relying on your own strength can you get by in life. You're better off without her."

"You bastard, I'll kill you!"

Jack flung himself into a run, thinking of nothing more than seizing this smug creature that wore his face and pounding it into a bloody wreck. The double was too fast for him, though. It saw him coming and dodged him easily, and pitched him off the stage and into the orchestra pit. Jack floundered and managed to pull himself to his hands and knees, but the fall had hurt him. He clutched at his shoulder where he'd fallen on it. The duplicate laughed.

"I told you, Jack," it said, "I'm the better part of you - your pride, your skill, your strength. I'm everything you lost when you decided to rely on other people's strength instead of your own. Do you think you can overcome me?"

"I'll do it if it takes a thousand years!" Jack roared. "If my friends are gone then I have nothing better to do."

The man smiled. "That's it exactly. You have nothing better. You lost me by casting your lot in with your friends. You lost your friends because without my strength, you're no good to them. You're no good to anyone. You're washed up, Jack. You didn't even have enough time out in the world to become a has-been."

"I don't care!"

"You care," his double said. "It's all you've ever cared about. Welcome to the underworld, Jack. This is your eternity: you're going to spend the rest of your existence feeling as powerless as your little girlfriend felt when the powers of darkness wiped her out. You're going to feel powerless because you _are_ powerless. You're a loser. You'll _always_ be a loser."

He sprang off the stage, tackling Jack and sending them both tumbling. The impact was enough to make a few of Jack's ribs crack, and he gasped in sudden pain, but the doppelganger rolled and bounded gracefully to his feet. He scooped Jack up by the collar and hauled him to his feet with an inhuman strength, and flung him across the room like a rag doll. Pain flooded Jack's senses, and he tried to do something, to fight back, but his strength had left him. He fell to his knees with a groan.

"That's right. Kneel. It's best for a loser like you," his double said. "You can just sit back and watch me win my way to the top, and know that it could have been you, if you hadn't ruined your own chances. You can sit in the dark and think about that."

With one final laugh, he turned and swept out of the room. Jack tried to rise and follow him, but he felt so weak. All he could do was slump to the cold floor and let the pain and despair wash over him...

* * *

Rua had walked into an obstacle. He paused and rubbed his nose, blinking, as he tried to figure out what had just happened. Once he got his eyes to focus again, he realized that he was looking at his own front door.

"I'm... home?" he said aloud.

No one contradicted him. There was no one around to do so; the street was mysteriously empty, without even a car passing by on the street. Seeing nothing better to do, Rua let himself inside.

"Hello! Ruka! Anyone?" he called.

"Oh, Rua, you're home!" a woman's voice exclaimed.

"Come on in, Champ. We've been waiting for you," a man's voice added.

Rua felt his heart skip a beat. It had been months since the last time he'd seen his parents face to face. Usually they just sent e-mails, or the occasional phone call, and sent lavish gifts on birthdays and holidays, which wasn't the same as having them home. There were times when Rua had to stop and think to remember what color his mother's eyes were, or whether or not his father had worn a mustache the last time he'd seen him. Sometimes he felt like they were more pen- pals than parents. It made him wonder just how much they knew about him. Would they have to stop and think to remember what color _his_ eyes were, or what his favorite food was, or who his friends were? The knowledge that they were here now was enough to make him forget everything else. There was a part of him that had always been a little afraid that someday they might go so long without seeing him that they would forget about him entirely...

He burst into the living room and found his parents sitting side by side on the sofa, with a tea service set out on the coffee table in front of them. There was even a plate of cakes and cookies, sitting untouched, as though waiting just for him. His parents looked up and smiled in delight.

"There you are," his father said. "We were getting worried."

"If you hadn't shown up soon, we would have called," his mother added.

"I'm fine," said Rua, bounding over to a chair and helping himself to cake. "I've just been kind of busy, that's all. What are you guys doing here?"

"Why so surprised?" his mother asked. "We just wanted to be sure our children were doing all right."

"We're fine," said Rua. Then he paused to consider the matter. "I think."

"Yes, I was going to ask about that," said his father. "Where is Ruka? Isn't she with you?"

"Um," said Rua.

His father frowned. "You don't know where she is?"

"I did," said Rua, "but... stuff happened."

"How could you lose her?" his mother demanded. "Rua, we were trusting you to take care of her. Don't you know you were supposed to protect her?"

"I tried!" Rua protested. "I really tried!"

"Trying isn't good enough," said his father.

"But I fought with Misty and everything! I did everything I could!"

"Then it wasn't enough," said his mother. "Rua, you know how important she is. She's a championship duelist, you know. You're nowhere near her level of talent."

"Yeah, but..."

"And she's the Signer, not you," his father said. "You're lucky you were able to do anything at all. We thought the least we could do was to count on you to look after her."

"It's not my fault!" Rua protested. "I don't know what happened!"

"You were supposed to," said his father coldly. "Don't you understand? Ruka is the one who matters, not you. If you can't take care of her, you're of no use at all."

He stared at his parents, stunned. "But... but I thought..."

"Don't think," said his mother. "Just get out. You're of no use to us at all. You've lost our precious daughter - what makes you think we would want to keep you?"

"But... you're my parents," he protested.

"What difference does that make?" his father asked. "Don't you think we'd have come home more often if you really mattered to us? You might as well get out of our house right now."

His mother nodded. "You've never been anything but a millstone around our necks. We can manage better without you. You'll just be one less thing we need to worry about."

"Go on," said his father. "Get out."

"But..."

"Out!"

Rua ran. He bolted for the door, slammed it after him, and ran out into the street. He continued running, his arms folded around his chest as though he could hold his tears in by sheer force. His mind whirled. How could they do that? His own parents... Where was he going to go now? And what had happened to Ruka? Had he really failed her?

_Maybe she left..._

The thought crept into his mind and lodged there. If he was really as useless as all that, maybe she had left all on her own. Maybe nobody wanted him at all...

"I'm not going to cry," he told himself.

He had nowhere to go. There was no one around to ask for help. He was completely alone, and he had no idea what to do next.

_I really can't do anything,_ he thought. _Maybe I shouldn't even try..._

* * *

There was an empty room. Yusei was standing in it, trying to get his bearings. He appeared to be alone, which was wrong, because his friends should have been there, and there was nowhere else they could have gone.

The room was made of stone, the same rough bricks that made up the rest of the temple, and torches filled the space with reddish light and thin tendrils of smoke. There were carvings on the walls, much like the ones he had seen on the outside of the temple, but where those had featured images of the red dragon, these showed what were plainly the Earthbound Gods. Yusei could pick out the shapes of the ones he had seen in the distance as his friends were battling, and the spidery shape of Uru, but there were even more that he couldn't recognize. He wondered how many of them there were altogether. Were there still more, then, that he and his friends would have to overcome? Most disturbing of all, to him, was a symbol given pride of place at the center of the far wall. It was much larger than the others. It didn't resemble an animal or a bird, as most of the other symbols had. It looked to him like a series of spiraling loops, going deeper and deeper within each other. They almost seemed to move in the flickering torchlight, and it made him dizzy to look at it.

He had the feeling that it was looking at him.

"Fudo Yusei," it said. "You made it this far."

"Who are you?" Yusei asked.

"My true name is one you would not understand," the voice replied. It seemed to come from everywhere - from the carvings and the stones and from inside his own mind. The torches sputtered in time to its words. "Some call me Death, but that is not my true aspect, for you can live many years with me in your mind. Some call me Darkness, but that is wrong as well, for there is darkness that is good and wholesome as well as that which is evil. I am that which erodes the soul, the bringer of despair, the force of negation, the desire that cannot be fulfilled. I am the King of the Underworld."

"You're behind all of this?" Yusei asked.

"Yes."

"Why am I here?"

There was a pause as the king considered his answer. "Yours is a very straightforward mind. I cannot trick and trap you the way I would your friends. I thought it would be most effective to face you honestly."

"Come out where I can see you."

"I have no physical form. Any form I took would be a deception."

"Do the best you can."

In response, the shadows quivered and seemed to solidify. Yusei found himself looking at what appeared to be a human shape, like a shadow cast by no one. Its eyes were two darker places against the general blackness, a place where the shadows could not be seen through. Yusei thought he could make out a suggestion of horns and an even vaguer flicker that might be a pair of leathery bat's wings, but it was hard to be sure.

"Do you find this form appropriate, Fudo Yusei?"

"It will do," he replied. "Now, where are my friends?"

"They are gone," said the king.

"Gone where?"

"Gone nowhere," said the king. "Merely gone."

Yusei frowned. "Explain."

"This is the underworld," said the king, "and the essence of hell is that you must bear it alone. To have the presence of another is to have hope that what you cannot do yourself, someone else might. Another life would provide companionship, love, comfort, forgiveness. These things are anathema to this place. It is not possible for two people to be together in this place; the nature of this world will not allow it. Therefore, your friends are not here. They cannot be here; you cannot go to them."

"Then let us go somewhere we _can_ be together," Yusei demanded.

The king shook his head. "That is not within my power. I can only tear apart, not bring together. Your Crimson Dragon would have that power, but it can only be summoned by a group effort, and your group is no longer together."

"There has to be some way," Yusei insisted. "Why did we even come here if there was no way to get out?"

"That, I cannot answer."

"Why are you even talking to me, then?" Yusei asked.

"You provide momentary interest," said the King.

Yusei made a sound of frustration. "If you won't help me, then I'll find some way myself! I'm not giving up on my friends!"

He turned to walk away, back down the dark tunnel. The king spoke.

"I would advise you not to go," it said. "That way lies insanity. You could wander through dreams forever without once finding anything real. This space you stand in now is the only reality you will find."

"How do I know that?" Yusei asked.

"Trust your intellect," said the king. "You have the mind of a scientist, Fudo Yusei. You know the truth, even if you don't wish to contemplate it. These things you seek - friendship, love - they do not exist. Not in any real sense. The people you are looking for are not real."

"You're insane," said Yusei flatly. "How can you stand there and tell me..."

"You are a cluster of cells - an arrangement of molecules. You have no physical permanence. Every cell in your body is replaced every few months. You are not the same person you were a year ago, and a year ago you were not the same person as you were five years before that. In twenty years or so, you will look completely different, and in one hundred years you will have broken back down into your component atoms and become something else again. This is a scientific fact. Do you deny it?"

"That doesn't matter," said Yusei. "My body isn't what makes me who I am."

"Then what does? Your mind? Your soul?" asked the king. "Your mind is as volatile as your body. Your are constantly learning new things, revising your opinions, forgetting things that no longer matter to you. Your tastes change. Your interests will change. You will grow closer to some people and drift away from others. You will develop new skills. Can you really say that there is a single, constant person called 'Yusei' who is doing all these things when he is a different creature from week to week? And if you can't say that about yourself, what can you say about these so-called friends of yours? They will change as much as you do, and you know even less about them than you do about yourself. You can never truly know their hearts and minds. They are, at best, a jumble of sensory perceptions that you have formed certain opinions about. The people you claim to love don't even properly exist - they are your own beliefs projected onto bundles of biological matter. How can you love something like that, or believe that they love you in return?"

Yusei was quiet. He knew in his gut that what this creature was saying was wrong, but there was a sound of sense to it that he had difficulty arguing with.

"Why should I listen to you?" he asked. "Aren't you just a projection, too?"

"I am not mortal," said the king. "I am one of the elemental forces of the universe. I am as immutable as the laws of gravity and thermodynamics. I can never change my true nature. I do not change. And that is why you can trust me, Yusei. More than any of your friends, you can trust me, because I will always be exactly what I am."

"Maybe so," said Yusei. "But what's to stop me from misinterpreting you with my mortal senses?"

"I thought you might ask that," said the king. "I will offer you a chance. Let me into your mind. Become a part of me. You will gain the wisdom of the immortals, true knowledge of the universe - something greater than the fleeting passions of humankind."

Yusei stood his ground. He didn't want any of what the spirit was offering him, and yet, he didn't doubt that any of it was true. The creature was being absolutely honest with him, of that much he was certain. And yet, something felt wrong. There was a trap in front of him, and he wasn't about to put his foot into it.

"I think I'll reject your offer," he said.

"That is your right," said the king. "However, understand this: there is no escape from this room. You do not have a lot of time. Within the hour, the Earthbound Gods will reach this temple, and I will permit them to pass into the world of the living. All will be laid waste. You cannot afford to wait. I, however, can afford to wait for you."

There was nothing to say to that. Yusei stood silently in the empty chamber, watching the king as it watched him.

_There has to be a way out of this,_ he thought. _I just wish I knew what it was._

**To Be Continued...**


	34. The Dragon's Ring

**The Dragon's Ring**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Yusei stood motionless, staring at the dark shadow that watched him calmly. The room was so still that even his heartbeats seemed to echo there. Trapped - he was trapped, and his friends probably were too, too far away for him to ever find.

_This is my fault. I led them here. If I hadn't been so rash, if I hadn't chased Rudger into his trap..._

He bowed his head, and in the flickering light of the torches, something glittered. Yusei glanced down at his arm. His clothes were filthy, caked with the dust of the underworld, but somehow, something still sparkled there. On closer inspection, he discovered that a spider web had affixed itself to his sleeve at some point, probably while he had been busy chasing Rudger through the labyrinth of the lab. It wasn't much, but it was a token of the outside world, a reminder of something that still had life in it, and in this place of death, it felt like a lifeline. Yusei stared intently at it, as if expecting to find something written in its strands, but it seemed to be a perfectly ordinary web. If he had found it outside somewhere, he might have even thought it was pretty - a perfectly symmetrical net of slender strands, each connected to the other in a flawless spiral...

_Connected..._

"Say, your majesty," he said, raising his head. "How does a spider know when something is caught in its web?"

"What?"

"You know a lot about science. Answer me," said Yusei.

"Your question is irrelevant."

"It's relevant to me," said Yusei. "A spider knows when something is caught in his web because he can feel it no matter where he is, because every part of a spider's web is connected to every other part."

"Listen to yourself," the king scoffed. "Your mind is fragmenting already."

"My mind works just fine," said Yusei. "You're the one who's wrong."

"Impossible," said the king. "I can't be wrong. I am..."

"Immortal, I know," said Yusei. "And unchanging. Which means that you're more capable of being wrong than I am. I'm human - I can change. If I'm wrong, I can learn I'm wrong and change my ways, but when you're wrong, you're wrong _forever_. And you just made one very big mistake."

"What mistake could I possibly have made?" the king demanded.

Yusei smiled. "Thinking that my friends and I need to be in the same place to be together. We might be far apart, but we're all connected. What happens to one of us affects all of us - just like the strands of a spider web."

"That doesn't matter!" the king snarled, but Yusei could hear the doubt in its voice.

"Oh, I think it does," he said. "You'll see. You can separate us all you want, but you can't break our bonds. You just watch!"

* * *

An eternity later, Carly stirred. Hiding under the blankets wasn't making her feel any better.

_I should do something,_ she decided. Anything was better than just sitting and doing nothing forever. Maybe she should ask a guard if she could have some paper and something to write with. She was minimum security; surely they couldn't begrudge her something that simple. She would write down everything she remembered about her dream while most of it was still fresh in her mind. Then at least something about it would be preserved. Who knew - maybe if she cleaned it up a little, changed some names and locations around, she could pass it off as fiction and get it published. It wouldn't be her journalism dream job, but it would be something. Even an inmate could get a book published. What did she have to lose?

Somewhat more cheerful, she sat up - or tried to. She'd gotten herself thoroughly entangled in her blankets, and she was having trouble getting free. With a great deal of squirming, she managed to get one hand free, with such force that it swung out and smacked against the bedpost.

It went _clink_.

She withdrew her hand. She stared at it. There was a gold ring on her finger, looking rather scuffed, as though it had been through a lot. She knew for a fact that she'd never owned a ring that hadn't come out of a gumball machine, and certainly not one made of real gold... except for the one Jack had given her.

_It was real!_

Relief flooded through her. If the ring was real, then Jack was real, and if he was real, the everything else - Saiga, Yuji, Taka, Nerve, Blitz, Satellite, the garbage plant, the underground duels, the Wheel of Fortune, the Signers, the Earthbound Gods, all of it was real.

Which strongly suggested that whatever was going on now, it _wasn't_ real. And if it wasn't a real prison, then she could try to get out. She bounded from her bed and darted over to her door. It was shut tight, of course, but she yanked on it with all her strength, and it came open so fast that she nearly fell over. She darted into the hallway, noting with some satisfaction that it only seemed to go as far as she could see through her cell's windows. Beyond that point, it faded off into mist.

_Wait for me, everyone,_ she thought. _I'm coming to find you!_

* * *

Jack wasn't sure how long he lay there, paralyzed by confusion and despair, when he became aware of a sense of warmth. It was centered around his left hand - it felt as though the ring he wore was being heated by strong sunlight. Somehow he found the strength to raise his head and stare at it.

_Of course. How could I forget?_

Suddenly he was on his feet again, his energy restored, his pains vanished as though they'd never been. He bounded out of the theater and into the street, in time to see his double sauntering casually down an alleyway. Jack raced after him, moving like the wind, and dove into the darkness after him. He pounced on the duplicate and pinned him to the ground.

"What - what are you doing?" the doppelganger snarled.

"Giving you what you deserve," said Jack, slamming the man's head into the pavement.

"You can't do this to me!"

"It looks to me like I can," said Jack. "I hate to break it to you, but... No, you know what? I'm lying. I _don't_ hate to break this to you: you're wrong. You're wrong about me, and you're wrong about my friends. They are not holding me back. If I hadn't met Carly, I would still be rotting back there in that theater doing nothing. If I hadn't met Yuji and Saiga, I wouldn't have that D-Wheel. If Yusei hadn't been trying to help me, I'd probably be in jail right now. I probably wouldn't even be _alive_ right now if Martha hadn't been there to take care of me. Everything I have ever done, I've done it because someone was looking out for me. If I listened to you, do you know where I'd be now? Nowhere."

"Where do you think you are now?" the doppelganger retorted.

"I'm not listening to you anymore, for one thing," said Jack. "I'm leaving. I'm going to find my friends and I'm going to get out of here. And you can either help me or get out of my way."

With that, he got up and marched off. He wasn't sure how he was going to find them all, yet, but there was no doubt in his mind that he was going to. He still had his Signer mark and his ring, and as long as they were both intact, he could be sure that his link to the people he cared about was, too. All he had to do was keep following that sense of warmth...

* * *

Crow let himself go limp, the fight going out of him. He could still feel the flames on his skin, but they were nothing compared to the sting of what he'd just heard.

_Maybe it's true... maybe I have failed everyone..._

The words echoed around in his head for a moment longer. They struck a chord. Suddenly, Crow's head snapped up again, his eyes blazing.

"What the hell are you talking about?" he shouted.

"Crow, we just went over this," said his companion patiently, but Crow just shook his head.

"I don't know who you are," he said, "but you sure as hell aren't who you say you are. You want to know why? You can't be my failures because I haven't failed yet!"

Pearson glared at him. "You're in denial. Look around. Do you really think you can get out of this?"

"You better believe I do!" Crow retorted. "I'm the best thief in Neo Domino - I can get in and out of anything, anywhere, any time! And if you were really part of me, you'd _know_ that!"

"Do you even listen to yourself? There is no way out!" Pearson insisted. "This is the literal dead end, Crow. There is nowhere else to go."

"Then I'll go back the way I came," said Crow. "But I haven't failed yet. As long as I can still fight, there's still a chance to turn things around. The only way I'm going to fail is if I listen to you!"

"You can't fight your way out of this," said Pearson. "You don't even have anything to fight against down here. It's just you and me."

Crow looked at him in disbelief.

"Now I know you aren't part of me," said Crow. "I'm not that stupid," and he punched the man in the face.

He fell to pieces, literally. One minute, there was a semblance of a man there, and the next, there was only a pile of scraps, looking like nothing more than a few bits of old leather and dried- out bones. Crow stepped over them and headed for the door. The flames were already burning themselves out. He glanced at himself and was unsurprised to see that his clothes weren't even singed.

"You're going to have to try harder than that," he said, and let himself out. He smiled a little. If he got out of this, he really could take pride in being the best thief in Neo Domino - maybe even the world. It wasn't just anybody who could sneak his way out of hell.

* * *

Aki listened to the sound of the crowd coming closer. It was a genuine mob scene out of a horror movie, complete with people waving torches and brandishing pitchforks. If she had been watching it all on television, she might have laughed at it. As it was, she only felt numb, as though she were seeing something that had already played out long ago. It seemed inevitable that things would end this way.

"That's right - accept your fate," said her shadowy companion. "This is what a witch deserves."

"Yes," she said softly. "This _is_ what a witch deserves." Then she raised her head defiantly. "But it's not what _I_ deserve."

The shadow glared at her. "What makes you think that?"

"Because I'm not done yet," said Aki. "I've only just begun. I'm still getting to know my friends, I'm still trying to work things out with my parents, I'm still learning how to use my powers... there's too much for me to do for it to all end now. It wouldn't be fair for it to end now."

"Who says life is fair?"

Aki regarded her companion steadily. "This is the afterlife, yes? It's supposed to be my eternal reward. What is the point of that if it isn't exactly what I deserve?"

The shadow didn't answer her. It looked away, seemingly uncomfortable. Aki nodded, as though that were what she had expected.

"I am not the Black Rose Witch anymore," she said. "I don't know who I am, yet, but I'm going to find out. But at least I know I can change. This isn't how it's supposed to end for me."

"How do you think it's going to end, then?" the shadow sneered. "You're going to be reunited with your friends and family, and live happily ever after?"

Aki thought about it.

"That's one possibility," she said. "It would take work, but I think I can do it."

"It's already too late for that," the shadow snarled. "This is already the end of the line. Once these people get here, they'll never let you go."

"I don't think so," said Aki calmly.

The crowd arrived. They threw the front doors open and rushed at her, howling in rage, brandishing their weapons. For a moment they surrounded Aki like a flood, and she could see nothing but the blur of their bodies as they passed her. She stood calmly, a stone amid the river of people, and they roared past her and into the darkness, leaving only Aki and the shadow.

"They might be looking for the Black Rose Witch," she said, "but they aren't looking for me. I've changed."

"There is no change here," the shadow insisted.

"Then I won't stay here," she replied, and turned to walk away. "I'm going back. To my _friends_."

* * *

Ruka stared at the mountains of paperwork around her. For a moment, despair threatened to overwhelm her. There was no way she could do all this. She was too young, she didn't know enough, she just wasn't ready for it all...

"There's no use complaining about it," the woman next to her said. "Even if it takes you the rest of your life, you can't get out of it. Everyone has to grow up some time. Soon you'll be just like your parents, so involved in your work that you won't even miss what you've given up."

_My parents don't miss me?_ Ruka thought. Maybe they didn't. They'd been away so long she could barely remember what they looked like sometimes. Could she live like that? She didn't think so. No matter what, she and Rua had always done everything together. She might have done a lot of the serious thinking for him, but at least they were _together_. He had been her source of strength and courage for almost as far back as she could remember. How could she stand to live without Rua's companionship and constant support? Or her schoolmates', or her monster companions, or Aki's, or any of her new friends?

No. She couldn't.

"I won't," she said.

The woman smiled. "But dear..."

"I won't!" said Ruka more loudly. "And I don't have to! I don't have to do this on my own! I have my brother, and I have lots of friends who can help me, just like I help them. That's how being friends works."

"But Ruka... what about..."

Ruka glared at the woman. She seemed to be deflating; her hair was coming loose from its perfect bun, and her scarf had somehow gone crooked.

"If you want me to do all this so badly," said Ruka, "and you're really a part of me, than _you_ can deal with it."

Her chains fell slack, and she bounded free from the chair as they snaked away to seize the woman in the dark suit instead. They dragged her back, thrashing and shrieking, but Ruka ignored it all. She raced for the door and threw it open. The hallway seemed to have disappeared, dissolved into gray mist. Maybe it had never been anything else. Ruka ran down it anyway. She would find the way out. Her friends were waiting.

* * *

The motion of the city washed around Rua - passing cars, the crush of business people and shoppers with arms full of bags, the noise of advertising screens. Nothing seemed to touch him. He was moving in his own little bubble of solitude, wondering where he was going to go when no one wanted him.

_What am I going to do?_ he wondered.

He didn't know how to take care of himself, not really. He'd always been privileged in that he'd had enough money to buy whatever he wanted to eat, and had people to cook and clean and generally take care of him. He'd never paid much attention in school. He wasn't even all that good at dueling, mostly. He'd always gone through life blithely expecting that someone else would deal with everything - his parents, his sister, his friends. Why should he worry when everything had always worked fine before?

_I guess I should have paid a little more attention. Maybe if I'd thought for myself more, I wouldn't be in this mess._

But maybe now it was too late for good resolutions. He hadn't been able to save Misty, his parents had abandoned him, he'd lost his friends, and now his sister had disappeared. Maybe the whole effort had been one big failure...

He stopped walking. Failure? How could that be? Come to think of it, hadn't he been trying to save the world? The world looked pretty saved to him; it was humming along just as it usually did. Which didn't seem right. Rua's mind felt a little blurry, but he definitely remembered something about impending doom if he didn't do something, and he was pretty sure he hadn't done it yet. Which meant...

Which meant there was still time. The job still wasn't done, and in turn meant he still had a chance to do something useful. His sister was still out there somewhere - she might need his help. She could be in trouble right now, wondering where he was and when he'd come find her, and he was hanging around feeling sorry for himself. Hadn't he promised himself, once, after she'd been in that coma, that he would always be there to protect her no matter what? How could he have come so close to breaking his promise?

Rua's malaise fell away from him as though someone had cut away a sandbag. He had a mission: to find Ruka wherever she was and help her. Nothing could keep him away from her; they were a unit, meant to do whatever they were doing together.

"Wait for me!" he said. "I'll be there soon! You can count on me!"

* * *

Yusei felt a warmth creeping up his arm. He looked down to see that his Dragon's Birthmark was glowing softly, and he smiled. His companion, however, did not seem so pleased; it gave a snarl and backed away.

"What is that?" it hissed. "What are you doing?"

"Getting in touch with my friends."

"You can't do that!"

"Watch me," said Yusei.

He closed his eyes, concentrating on the feel of the mark pulsing on his skin like bursts of sunlight.

_These marks connect us. As long as we all have them, we're never really apart..._

They had to be out there. He would find them. He could almost sense them, somewhere out there beyond his reach, and he gritted his teeth and tried to focus. Gradually, he became aware of another presence, bright and hot as a flame, and he homed in on it.

_Jack? Can you hear me?_

_Yusei! There you are! It's about time._

Somewhere in the background, Yusei felt another presence, bright and vibrating like the wings of a bumblebee. _Jack, is that you? Where are you? I can't see you..._

_Is that Carly?_ Yusei wondered. _Why am I hearing her and you but no one else?_

_Don't ask me,_ Jack answered. _I think it has something to do with the ring. I can feel it doing something._

_What ring?_ asked Yusei, puzzled.

Carly piped up, _The one he gave me. It's the symbol of our bond!_

_Of course!_ Yusei exclaimed, as sudden understanding dawned. _That explains it! That's what I've been overlooking..._

_Well, I wish you'd clue me in,_ said Jack.

_I just figured out the Crimson Dragon,_ said Yusei. _I should have realized before... I saw it on the temple wall. It's a ring. The Dragon is a ring!_

_You're not making any sense,_ Jack complained.

_Watch and see,_ said Yusei.

He took another deep breath and began assembling an image in his mind. There was Jack, blazing like a torch. There was Aki, soft as a rose petal and sharp as a thorn. There was Crow, a warm, protecting shadow, like the wing of a bird defending its chicks. There was Ruka, bright and solemn as a stained-glass window, Carly's eager fluttering presence, Rua's bold vibrant one. Somewhere out there were Ushio and Mikage, Martha, Yanagi, the Dark Signers and Aki's parents, all the people who had helped the team get this far. He envisioned them gathered around him, each taking their place in the circle, all forming part of the pattern. There was a reason why the Signers were only marked with bits and pieces of the Dragon's image. They couldn't do anything alone. It was the bonds that held them together that made everything work. Even as he embraced that realization, he could feel everything pulling together and falling into place.

_We've never been alone. We've been helping each other all along._

_That's right! If Crow hadn't escaped from jail, I wouldn't have known how to escape..._

_If Carly hadn't come looking for me..._

_If you two hadn't left, Goodwin wouldn't have come to the island for me. I might not have even had the courage to try to leave._

_If you hadn't gone looking for them, I'd probably still be at the Arcadia Movement now._

_Yeah, and if you hadn't come looking for her, you wouldn't have found me and Ruka!_

_We wouldn't have even been there, if Rua hadn't gone looking for Jack and Carly, and I hadn't wandered off alone and met Aki..._

_Every step we took, every move we made, we've all been moving closer to each other, even when we didn't know it. Now that we know how close we are, our bonds are stronger than ever. That's the power we share._

There was a sudden echoing sound that rang in everyone's mind, a cry like the song of a whale, and Yusei's mind was suddenly filled not only with the presence of his friends, but with another presence so warm and bright that he involuntarily flung up an arm to protect his eyes. Then the light dimmed, just enough that he could see, and he looked around cautiously to find the world had changed. He was standing in a vast underground place, a rough-walled cavern hung with stalactites. The shadow he'd been speaking to was still there, larger and darker than ever, eyes blazing red with fury. But what interested Yusei more was where that fury was directed. His friends were standing with him, forming a loose circle around the perimeters of the room; where the room had once been lit by the red light of torches, it was now illuminated by the glow of the Dragon's Birthmarks.

And also by the Dragon.

It roared again, and the room shook, sending bits of stone raining down from the ceiling. Yusei stared in awe. The Dragon appeared to be made of red and gold flames, rippling constantly as it moved, its body twining with otherworldly grace. Its eyes were two points of pure light, impossible to look at directly, and the sense of the mind behind him was as vast and unknowable as the spread of the stars. Calling it a dragon seemed almost an offense; it was a being of pure power, light, and thought. Yusei knew that however this turned out, he would always feel the world was a little more wonderful for the knowledge that such a being existed.

"Man, am I glad to be out of that!" said Crow.

"There was never any doubt," Jack asserted. "So, what do we do now?"

"I think," said Yusei, pointing at the shadow, "that we get rid of that."

Everyone looked at it. It seemed to be sizing the Dragon up; the dragon was circling it slowly, and it turned in place to watch. Suddenly, the Dragon lunged, breathing a plume of golden fire. The King dodged and threw itself at the Dragon, locking its arms around it as if to crush it. The Dragon roared and twisted itself around its attacker like a constrictor snake and sunk its teeth into the shadow's shoulder. The beast screeched with new levels of rage and loosened its hold long enough to rake its claws across the dragon's face. It let go, surprised, and the shadow managed to grab it by the throat.

Meanwhile, the Signers stood and watched the struggle.

"Shouldn't we help?" asked Crow uncertainly.

Jack shot him a glare. "How do you suggest we do that?"

"I'm open to suggestions!" Crow replied.

The shadow was getting the upper hand. With a mighty heave, it managed to wrench free of the dragon's grip and fling it across the room. The dragon slammed into the wall and fell. It raised its head slightly, groaned, and lay still, its fires dimming.

"Seriously," said Crow, "now would be a good time to come up with ideas!"

The shadow lurched towards them. It was moving stiffly, as though injured, but the red light in its eyes still shone fiercely.

"You will pay for bringing that creature into my domain," it said. "I'll drag you into the abyss myself - starting with _you_!"

Yusei didn't have time to see it coming. He got only a fleeting impression of the shadow gathering itself for a spring, and the next thing he knew, he was engulfed in darkness. It was heavy darkness, thick and cold, weighing him down, slowing his breathing and heartbeat. It got into his mind, filling his head with every fear, every doubt, every disappointment and failure he'd ever experienced. The darkness beckoned: he could give up, let himself slip away, and he would forget the pain of all that. He'd never have to feel any of it again. Nothing bad would ever happen again, at least, not to him...

He was dimly aware that his friends were calling out to him - or maybe just crying out in terror - but they were too far away, and their voices couldn't reach him. The bonds were dissolving as his consciousness of himself came unraveled. Maybe the shadow had been right. No one could be friends with someone who didn't exist anymore. What good was a bond that could be undone so easily? Easier and more pleasant by far to just give up, forget, let it all go. With a little sigh of relief, he let himself fall into the darkness.

Something rose up and caught him. Yusei felt a lurch, as though he'd been standing on a floor that had just dropped a few inches. He blinked. A moment ago, he'd felt himself to be surrounded by thick shadows. Now he seemed to be suspended in a bubble of milky light, its surface rippling gently. He wasn't alone. A man stood before him, dressed in a long white lab coat, his green eyes glinting from beneath his dark hair. He was smiling slightly, with an expression that mixed joy and pride and sadness.

"Dad?" Yusei whispered.

"Hello, son," said his father. "Sorry I didn't get here sooner."

"That's all right," said Yusei, smiling a little in return. "I... had a feeling you might get here. Somehow, I always imagined that if I just made it this far..."

His father laid an ephemeral hand on his shoulder.

"I wanted to come sooner," he said, "but I thought it best to hold myself in reserve. I may not be a duelist, but I know the value of having an ace in the hole."

"Is there something you can do to stop that thing?" asked Yusei eagerly.

"I'm afraid not," his father replied, shaking his head sadly. "All I can do here is tell you some things you might find worth knowing. First..." He smiled again, suddenly, and for a moment he looked exactly the way he did in the old photographs, lively and carefree. "First, I want to tell you a secret. It isn't a big secret, but it's something you might want to remember someday - something the King of the Underworld, by his nature, can't understand."

"What kind of secret?" Yusei asked.

"Simply this," his father replied. "There are two ways to die. One is the death of the body - what the King spoke of, with the breaking down of tissues into their component parts and recombining with the environment. That much is true, but the part of you that's _you_ remains."

"The King said that isn't real either," said Yusei, more to see what his father would say than anything else. It was easier to believe in souls when he was talking to an actual ghost. "He says that I change so much I can't even be sure I really exist."

His father smiled. "You say ﾑI change'. For there to be change, something has to be doing the changing. You can take a lump of clay and change its shape into a ball or a rope or a pancake, but it's still the same lump of clay. It's a little like that."

Yusei nodded. "So that's the first way to die. What's the second, then?"

"The death of the soul," his father answered. "It happens from time to time. Someone becomes obsessed with making money, or loses themselves in their job, or drowns out their thoughts with television and video games, or seeks salvation in the love of another person. They pursue this thing, whatever it is, until nothing else matters to them and they start losing their own identity. If this goes on long enough, they become only an empty shell. Their true self is blotted out. The Earthbound Gods have power over the first kind of death. They can destroy a body or bring it back to life again. What they can't do is destroy a soul. That is why they choose victims who seek vengeance. By choosing someone who has devoted themselves to a bad cause, the gods can gain power over their souls as well as their bodies."

"That makes a sort of sense," said Yusei.

His father laughed. "You don't have to puzzle it out. Just remember it. It might be helpful to you someday. Also, it may help you to remember that no matter how difficult things get, no matter how alone you might feel, your mother and I are always near you. The Underworld King had that much wrong - some things do change, but love lasts. I never want you to doubt that we love you."

Yusei nodded, throat tight. "Thank you."

"And one last thing thing..." his father continued. "You are a duelist. Your place in the world is to fight. Now is a good time to do it."

"But how can I fight back?" asked Yusei. "This thing... it's some kind of god. I'm just... me."

"That's all you need," said his father. "Just remember what I've told you. You'll be fine."

"But..." Yusei began.

His father reached out and took his hand, pressing something into it.

"Good luck," he said. "I'll be waiting for you at the finish line."

Then Yusei's world went dark again, and he knew that he was alone. The weight of the shadows pressed in around him, but his mind felt clearer now than it had a moment ago. For the moment, at least, the darkness couldn't harm him, but it wasn't going to wait around forever. He had to do something. So what could he do?

He could do what any duelist would do: he could fight. His hand closed tightly around the thing his father had given him.

"It's my turn! Draw!"

He whipped the card out in front of him, brandishing it like a weapon. It blazed to life, glowing with its own silvery light. The Underworld King retreated with a hiss, and Yusei found himself standing safely in the cavern again, Duel Disk at ready and card still in hand.

"Whoa," he heard Rua exclaim, "where did he get _that_?"

The shadow didn't seem to like the look of the card, either. It backed away snarling words in some arcane tongue.

"What do you think you're going to do with that?" it demanded.

"What any good duelist would do with a monster like this," said Yusei. "I'm going to summon it! Come forth, Savior Star Dragon!"

There was a flare of light so intense he could almost hear it, and a rush of heat and light. Something roared into being, a sinuous creature of gleaming scales and flashing wings, and Yusei smiled.

"Go get him," he said.

The dragon obeyed, lunging at the shadow and spitting out a spray of white light that made the King shriek in pain. It darted out of the way, looking singed but otherwise unharmed. It glared at Yusei.

"Do you think you can stop me with this?" it demanded. "I am one of the immortals! If I can defeat the Crimson Dragon, do you think you stand a chance?"

"Maybe. Maybe not," said Yusei. "But I don't intend to face you all by myself. I'm just here to help."

"What do you-" the King began.

That was as far as he got before the Crimson Dragon attacked from behind. Now the King was being attacked from two directions at once, and while the Savior Star Dragon's attacks weren't doing very much damage, they were effectively keeping the King distracted from fighting the Crimson Dragon.

Predictably, Jack was the first to stop gawking.

"Damn it, if he can do it, I can do it," he said. He plucked a card from his deck. "Come forth, my soul - Red Daemon's Dragon!"

A second red dragon, less dazzling than the star god but scarcely less imposing, descended onto the battlefield with a cry of primal rage. The other Signers, seeing it, roused themselves from their collective daze.

"What the heck - I'm in," said Crow. "I summon Black Feather - Armored Wing!"

"I want to help," Aki agreed, nodding. "I play the Black Rose Dragon!"

"Hey, don't leave me out!" Carly protested. "This should help - Fortune Lady Lighty!"

Ruka bowed her head over her cards. "Ancient Fairy Dragon, we need you too..."

"You can count on me!" said Rua. "Come on out, Power Tool Dragon!"

The cavern exploded with monsters. Suddenly, the air was full of whirring wings and blasts of light and energy. The Underworld King was pummeled with a relentless barrage of attacks, and no matter what it did, it couldn't block all of them at once. It was being forced steadily into a corner. Already it seemed diminished, its wings tattered and body smoking faintly. The Crimson Dragon, on the other hand, appeared to be gaining power by the second. It filled the room with its presence, dazzling as the sun. It spread its wings wide, and its chest expanded as it drew in its breath for a final attack.

"You can't destroy me," the King wheezed. "To destroy me, you would have to put an end to all suffering and selfishness everywhere. I am a part of creation, whether you like it or not."

"I don't believe that, either," said Yusei. "But for now, I'll settle for getting out of here."

The King hissed again. "So be it. I've had enough of this pointless fight, but don't think it's over. Now, take your filthy dragons and go!"

That was as far as it got before the Crimson Dragon released the pent up energy it had been collecting. It came out in a stream of light so brilliant that Yusei and the others had no choice but to look away. The impact of it shook the room. Yusei thought he heard, somewhere in the midst of the tumult, the Underworld King's scream, but it was drowned out by the deafening force of the Crimson Dragon's blow. It blinded and deafened him, and despite his best efforts, he felt himself spinning away into unconsciousness...

* * *

When Yusei came around again, he was lying on a smooth cool surface. It puzzled him. It didn't feel like stone, or pavement, or anything he'd ever imagined finding himself lying on. It reminded him a little of glass, but there was something ripply and fluid about it, too, as though he rested on it the way a leaf rested on the surface of the water, perfectly supported by something that was nevertheless not quite solid. Curiosity compelled him to sit up and look around.

He was resting on a floor of stars, and there were stars on the walls and stars on the ceiling, and he couldn't tell where one left off and the other began. Scattered around him, in various states of consciousness, were the rest of his friends. Crow was already awake and looking around with every sign of interest. Jack was awake too, and prodding a still-dozing Carly with an expression of irritation. Aki was shaking herself dazedly, apparently unable to believe the situation she'd found herself in, and the twins were still huddled together, twitching slightly as they fought their way towards wakefulness. Yusei was relieved to see that Ushio and Mikage were there as well, propped against each other in a corner, still out cold but apparently unharmed.

They weren't the only ones there, either. Hanging several feet above the floor, or at least the place where the floor seemed to be, were a number of pale spheres, each containing one or two motionless figures. Yusei recognized them as Goodwin and the Dark Signers. They seemed awake but frozen, as though someone had pushed some universal pause button. Also in the room was the Crimson Dragon itself, coiled up like a snake, its wings folded against its back in a restful attitude. Only its eyes were alert and watchful.

And then someone else appeared. Yusei's father stepped gradually into view: first as no more than a bright mist, then taking on form and substance until he was indistinguishable from a living man. He looked around the room with a solemn expression.

"Ah, good. It seems most of you are awake," he said.

At the sound of his voice, the last of the Signers and their companions came awake.

"Hey," said Crow, "isn't that...?"

"Dad," said Yusei. "You weren't gone long."

"I told you I would see you at the end," Dr. Fudo replied. "And as it happens, the Dragon finds it difficult to communicate in human terms. Since I have a personal stake in the matter, he has graciously permitted to act as his interpreter in this case."

"Where are we?" asked Aki.

"This is a judgment hall," Dr. Fudo replied. "Specifically, a place of judging the dead."

Jack glared. "Are we here to be judged, then?"

"Of course not!" said Dr. Fudo. "You're here as the jury. _These_ are the ones who must be judged."

He waved his hands at the spheres containing the Dark Signers.

"I thought," said Yusei carefully, "that they had already died - that their souls had become property of the Earthbound Gods."

"That is true," his father answered. "However, there is a slight technicality. They did make a bargain with the Earthbound Gods, yes: on the event of their death, their souls go to the gods in exchange for vengeance against those who they desired revenge upon. Since all of you were successful in defeating them, they never got their promised vengeance and the deal doesn't hold. It's also true that while the Earthbound Gods can offer a parody of life, the Crimson Dragon has the power to restore them to true life. If they aren't dead, the deal is off, and they have a second chance to try for a better ending."

"So let me get this straight," said Crow. "Basically, they're getting karmic do-overs?"

Dr. Fudo smiled. "Possibly. If they are judged worthy. They will be given a chance to plead their cases. If you choose to grant them lenience, they will be returned to their old lives, or some reasonable approximation thereof. If not, they will die and be sent onwards to whatever afterlife they are most deserving of at this moment. Is that clear?"

Everyone nodded, somewhat warily.

"Very well," said Dr. Fudo. "Then on behalf of the Crimson Dragon, I declare this court in session. Will the first defendant please come forth?"

One of the spheres dropped to the floor and vanished, leaving Kiryu crouching on the floor. Crow darted forwards to help him stand. Kiryu gave him a wan smile.

"And here I thought I was done with the court system," he said.

"Don't joke," said Crow.

Kiryu shook his head. "Why not? This whole thing is a joke. We both know what the answer has got to be."

"The answer is that you're coming back with us," said Crow stubbornly.

"It can't be like that," said Kiryu. "I've caused too much trouble already. There's no life for me left back there. What kind of future could I possibly have? I'm the most notorious criminal Neo Domino has ever had. Even if I did come back to life, they'd just throw me back in prison and kill me again."

"If they try it," said Crow, "I'll get you back out again. I have gone through way too much trouble to let you just turn around and make all my hard work for nothing. You _are_ coming back with me, if I have to grab you by that stupid hair of yours and _drag_ you back."

Kiryu almost smiled. "You leave my hair out of this."

"Seriously, the first thing we're doing when we get back is getting you a haircut. If you're going to go around calling yourself a dangerous criminal, you could at least try a little harder to look the part."

"All right, all right, I give up!" said Kiryu. His wan face took on a bit of its old animation. "You're too stubborn for me. Maybe you're right. With you on my side, I might just make it."

"No doubt about it," Crow agreed.

The two of them clasped hands. Then Kiryu dissolved into a cloud of white lights, and Crow looked around in alarm.

"Don't worry," said Dr. Fudo. "He's gone back to the world of the living. He'll be waiting for you when you get there."

He made a gesture, and the next sphere descended. Misty appeared, kneeling on the floor, and Rua darted over to her.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

Misty smiled at him. "Of course not. I'm fine, don't worry."

Rua didn't look reassured. "I really didn't want to fight with you. It was just... there wasn't any other way."

"I know. You did the right thing," she said. "I have no one to blame but myself for this. I should have listened to you all along."

"But everything is going to be okay now, right?" said Rua. "I mean, you can come back and start over."

"I don't know," she said. "Can I?"

"Sure you can," said Rua. "Things will be different now. You'll have me to keep you company, and you said that Ruka could come visit you sometimes too, so there's that. And maybe you can get to know Aki, now that you know she's not a bad person. Maybe everybody else, too. They all seem pretty nice. You don't have to be alone anymore."

"You can really forgive me so easily?" asked Misty.

Rua blushed a little. "Well, I was kind of stupid, too. Anyway, I'd hate for Ruka to never get her cake. It wouldn't be fair."

Misty laughed. "Very well. I will come back, for the sake of Ruka and her cake. And for you."

She reached out to embrace him, and he hugged her tightly for a moment before she disappeared.

Another sphere appeared before Ruka, depositing Demak at her feet. He sat there sullenly and didn't look at her.

"Well, get on with it," he said. "Don't waste your time with a lot of fancy speeches. I just want it over with."

Ruka studied him for a long time, saying nothing. Then she looked up at Dr. Fudo.

"Why did he steal the Ancient Fairy Dragon's card?" she asked.

"For the same reason anyone steals anything," Dr. Fudo replied. "Because he wanted it. This is a man who grew up in an ugly world, and lived an ugly life, and his mind is full of ugly things. He's been starved for beauty until he's like a hungry animal, with no thoughts in his mind but to satisfy his appetite, and the dragon was too much for him to resist."

"I see. Thank you," said Ruka.

She took out her deck and drew two cards. Immediately, Regulus and the Ancient Fairy Dragon shimmered into view. At the sight of them, Demak's sullen expression turned to one of wonder. Even when he was a hairsbreadth away from death, it seemed, he couldn't help but be captivated by the dragon's magnificence. Ruka looked at him a moment, then nodded, seemingly reaching a conclusion.

"Ancient Fairy Dragon, Regulus, could you do me a favor?" she said. "Would you watch this man for me, and make sure he doesn't cause any more trouble?"

The Ancient Fairy Dragon inclined her head.

"We will watch him very carefully," she promised, and Regulus rumbled an agreement.

"Well chosen," said Dr. Fudo. He turned to Demak. "I think you had better go back to sleep now."

"But..." said Demak, casting one last look at the Ancient Fairy Dragon. Then Dr. Fudo put a hand over Demak's eyes, and he slumped forward, vanishing before he could completely hit the ground. Regulus and the Ancient Fairy Dragon also vanished.

"Three down," said Dr. Fudo. "Let's see, who else is left... Ah, yes. This one."

He drew another sphere down, rather less gently than he had with the others, unceremoniously dumping Divine onto the floor. The man looked shaken for a moment, then glanced up and saw Aki. He all but flung himself at her feet, making her back away a little in shock.

"Aki, thank goodness," he said, his face taut with fear. "You have to save me. You don't know what they'll do to me if you don't. I know you won't let them hurt me..."

Aki looked at him for a moment, her expression torn between longing and revulsion. Then her face hardened.

"You hurt me," she said, her voice deadly calm. "You used me. You treated me like a tool, something you could use to get whatever you wanted. You would say or do anything, as long as it would benefit you somehow. Even if you had to kill someone. Even if you had to kill _me_."

"It wasn't my choice!" said Divine. "The god made me do it! I loved you, Aki. You have to believe that."

"He's lying," said Dr. Fudo calmly.

"I know," said Aki. She looked back at Divine. "You were going to sacrifice me to a death god to save your own life."

"I had to!" Divine protested. "You have no idea what they would have done to me if I hadn't."

"I can tell her," said Dr. Fudo. "They would have let you go."

Divine's head snapped up to look at him. "They _what_?"

"Your crimes, from what I can tell, amount to you being colossally and unmitigatedly selfish," said Dr. Fudo. "If there had been a single shred of selflessness in you, you might have been able to save yourself. If you had been willing to suffer in Aki's place, the gods would have had no hold on you."

"How was I supposed to know that?" Divine demanded.

Dr. Fudo shook his head. "That's the point. You shouldn't have needed to know." He turned to face Aki. "Well, what do you choose? This man hasn't got a particle of decency in him. He deserves whatever he gets. If your places were reversed, he would turn you over to face this punishment without turning a hair. Will you pardon him anyway?"

Aki frowned, looking down at Divine. All traces of his glib charm were gone now; his face was a mask of desperate fear. It was hard to believe, now, that he had ever been attractive to her.

"Is there..." she began hesitantly, "Is there any way he could be... made harmless, somehow?"

"Y-e-s..." said Dr. Fudo thoughtfully. "I think something like that might be arranged."

"Then do that," said Aki. "Bring him back to life, but put him somewhere he can't do any more damage."

Dr. Fudo nodded and wandered over to the Crimson Dragon's side. The two of them conversed for a moment, the professor in a low voice and the dragon in its songlike wails. Then Dr. Fudo returned to the group. He looked sternly down at Divine.

"I hope you understand what a lucky break you're getting," he said. "You will be returned back to your old life. You will be stripped of all your psychic powers, and it is doubtful that you will ever regain them. You will probably lose all your material wealth, as well. We have a few other surprises in store for you, too, but I think I'll let you wait and find those on your own. Is that acceptable to you?"

"Yes, yes, anything! Just don't let me die again," said Divine.

"So be it," said Dr. Fudo. "_Try_ not to do anything like this again."

Divine started to reply, but Dr. Fudo waved him away, and he dissolved like mist in the morning sunlight. Aki sighed wistfully. Dr. Fudo gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

"I think you made a very wise choice," he said.

"I don't know about wise," she said. "But I know that he wouldn't have done the same for me. I want to be as little like him as possible."

"That's completely understandable," the professor replied.

The next sphere contained two men. When it opened, Yuji and Saiga looked around dazedly before noticing each other.

"Yuji, are you...?"

"I'm fine, I think. The last thing I remember..."

Dr. Fudo walked over to them and cleared his throat. Saiga and Yuji stopped interrogating each other to look at him.

"I'm afraid we haven't all been introduced," said Dr. Fudo politely. "Could you tell me which of you two is Yuji?"

Saiga pointed, and Yuji said, "I am."

"I'm glad to say your part in this trial is a small one," Dr. Fudo replied. "You're innocent of any wrongdoing here. You may choose for yourself. You're basically a good man - if you died now, you'd be guaranteed a trip to the higher realms. On the other hand, the Crimson Dragon has offered to give you your old life back, and all of this will seem like just a dim memory to you. I'm afraid you'll revert back to what you were before the truck hit you - scars and bad leg and all - but other than that, you'll be as good as new. It's up to you, whichever you prefer."

"I want to know what's going to happen to Saiga first," said Yuji.

"You shouldn't worry about me," said Saiga. "I'm the one who screwed everything up. You should be glad to get rid of me."

"You died to try to save me," said Yuji. "Sure, it maybe wasn't the best choice you could have made, but..."

"I made the _worst_ possible choice," said Saiga. "I made you suffer for no reason, I tried to make you kill your own best friends, and I did it all because of what _I_ wanted. What could possibly be good in all that?"

"Well, look at it this way," said Yuji. "If you hadn't done anything, I'd just be dead. Thanks to you, I'm getting a chance to go back and keep going. That sounds pretty good to me."

Saiga shook his head. "I can't believe you're still trying to forgive me after all this. I don't deserve it."

"In that case," said Jack tersely, "you had better come back so you can start making it up to us."

Saiga turned to look at him. "Who asked you?"

"He did," said Jack, pointing at Dr. Fudo. "He's the one who said we're deciding how the judgments get handed down. And I say you had better come back. Who else am I going to get to take care of the Wheel of Fortune for me if you leave? You can't expect me to ask Yusei to do it."

Saiga almost smiled. "That's all you care about, isn't it?"

"You two should come back," said Carly gently. "It just won't be the same without you guys around. We really did have a lot fun together, didn't we?"

Yuji gave Saiga an encouraging look. "She's right, you know. We did make a pretty good team there, for a while. Shame to break it up."

Saiga was quiet for a while.

"Hmph," he said at last. "Well, I guess if you three are keeping tabs on me, I can't get into too much more trouble. But... next time it looks like I'm going to do something that stupid again, one of you had better stop me _before_ I do it. Got it?"

Carly grinned. "Got it!"

"You usually look like you're being foolish," said Jack, "but I suppose I can make an effort."

Saiga nodded. "Good enough."

"Thanks, guys," said Yuji. "I mean it. For everything."

The two of them faded from view. Dr. Fudo turned his attention to the final sphere.

"Now, these two," he murmured. "These are a special case."

The orb opened, releasing Rex and Rudger Goodwin. They glanced around warily, and both of them noticed Dr. Fudo at the same time.

"You again," said Rex.

"Me again," Dr. Fudo agreed.

"What is going on here?" Rudger demanded.

"A trial," said Dr. Fudo, "but I'm afraid it doesn't matter in your particular case. No matter what verdict got handed down, in the end, it would be a moot point."

"What do you mean?" asked Rudger.

"It comes down to this," said Dr. Fudo. "The Crimson Dragon can only restore what life energy was there to begin with. The other Dark Signers died sudden, violent deaths. Had their lives not been interrupted in such a way, they would have gone on for many more years. You, though... you've been trying to contain both the dark and the light energies in your body for many years now, and it has burned through your strength far more rapidly than you would have if you'd lived a normal life. Basically, your time is up. Even if the Crimson Dragon restored you now, you might live a few months, at most. There isn't much point in trying. And since by casting the Signers into the underworld, you did by some technical definitions kill them, and thus receive the benefit your god promised..."

"I'm trapped," said Rudger. "I have to fulfill my side of the bargain."

"I'm sorry," said Dr. Fudo. "There's nothing I can do for you."

"But there is something I can do," said Rex.

Rudger looked at him. "Don't do it."

"It's what I came here to do," Rex replied. "It's one of the old rules. I can offer up my own life to free him from his obligation."

"Now, where did you learn that?" asked Dr. Fudo, raising an eyebrow.

"I told him," said a new voice, and a woman stepped out of a shimmer in the air. Dr. Fudo laughed softly.

"And people always said I was the clever one," he said.

Mrs. Fudo shrugged. "It was the only sensible solution. This is the only way everyone can get anywhere near what they want."

"Indeed," said Rex. "This is what I choose to do. My life for my brother's soul. We go together."

"Rex..." said Rudger hoarsely.

Rex placed a hand on his brother's arm. "Keiko is right. This is the best way."

"So be it," said Dr. Fudo. "And since that is everyone... I declare this court ended. Congratulations, everyone. You've done well. Now you can all go home and get some well- deserved rest."

"But it's not over yet," said Yusei seriously. "Not all of it, anyway."

His father's attitude turned serious. "No, it's not."

"You mean there's _still_ something we've got to do?" asked Crow. "Geez! If I'd have known there was going to be all this, I would have thought twice before looking for that dragon."

"You don't have to do it all yet," Mrs. Fudo promised him. "You have time to relax, for a while."

"For a while," her husband agreed. "But I'm afraid Yusei is right - this was only the beginning. The cause of all this is still out there."

"The Yliasters," said Yusei.

Dr. Fudo nodded. "Their hand has guided everything from the beginning. I'm not sure of their methods and motivations yet, but I know they are very powerful and very dangerous, and I'm sure they won't be giving up just because this phase of their plan has failed. And I have a feeling that when they do arrive, it will be you they test most of all."

Yusei nodded. "I'll be ready."

"I know you will," his father replied. He looked at the rest of the Signers. "You have all done very well. You're worthy to be called heroes. I'm pleased that my son has friends like you. But now I think you had better get back to real life for a while."

"Will I ever see you again?" Yusei asked.

His mother laughed. "Of course you will. It's like your father said - we're always close by. We'll be there, if you truly need us." She gave him a smile. "It's a special perk of being a hero."

The Crimson Dragon uncoiled itself, raising its head high over all of them.

"Better brace yourselves," said Dr. Fudo. "This is probably going to be a little disorienting."

Yusei frowned a little. "What's going to be..."

That was as far as he got before the Crimson Dragon suddenly rose up and swooped at him with its jaws open wide. Yusei had just enough time to register the sound of his friends crying out in dismay, and then he was engulfed in red flames. He wanted to exclaim, but the heat was so intense that it took his breath away, and all he could do was let himself go limp and hope it would be over soon.

An instant later, gravity did something complicated, and he found himself being pitched face forward on the grass. Several muffled thumps told him that his friends had just arrived in a similar fashion. He picked himself up and looked around.

It was morning. The sun was just peeking over the skyline, and the clouds were tinted with rose and gold. The grass was still damp with dew, sparkling wherever the light touched it. All around them, flowers were beginning to open. After a moment, he realized that they were lying in Goodwin's back yard.

"Yusei! Hey, Yusei!"

He was distracted from his thoughts by a small person flinging themselves at him, and he grunted as Rua landed on his back and flung his arms around Yusei's neck.

"Are you okay?" Rua asked.

"I'm fine," Yusei assured him. "Is everyone else all right?"

There was a chorus of vague murmurs. The rest of the group was still picking themselves up off the lawn, blinking at the sudden change in light and trying to sort out what had just happened. Ushio rubbed at his temples, squinting blearily at the landscape.

"Man," he muttered. "I've got a hangover and I haven't even been drinking. What's going on? Did we win?"

Yusei touched the mark on his arm. He couldn't feel so much as a tremor from it; it could have been drawn there with ink.

"I'm pretty sure we've won," he said.

"Oh, good," said Ushio, settling down again. "In that case, I'm gonna take a breather."

Mikage nudged him. "Don't get too comfortable. It looks like we're not the only ones who made it back.

Yusei looked around and realized that it was true. The Signers weren't the only ones who had been deposited unceremoniously on the grass. Misty was lying unconscious in a bed of petunias, her dark hair spilling around her as elegantly as if she'd posed that way. Jack and Carly's two friends were awake and apparently reassuring each other that they were all right. Kiryu seemed to be awake, too. He was already on his feet, wandering around in a daze as though he suspected he might have landed on outer space. Given his limited experience with gardens, Yusei thought, it was entirely possible that he thought he _was_ in outer space. After a few more seconds of aimless wandering, his gaze fell on Ushio and Mikage, and he strode purposely towards them. Ushio tensed, apparently ready to defend his partner if necessary, but he need not have worried. Kiryu stopped a few feet away and held out his hands.

"Well?" he said. "Are you taking me back?"

"Back?" Mikage asked. "Back to where?"

"To prison," said Kiryu. "I'm supposed to be there. I did... terrible things. I _should_ be there."

Mikage regarded him thoughtfully for a moment. Then she produced her ever-present handheld and began typing into it.

"Let me see," she said. "According to this, you weren't sentenced to be incarcerated; you were sentenced to death. Furthermore, it says here that you were supposed to have your execution this week. Also, it would seem that you were, in fact, executed by a member of Security not long ago. Therefore, your sentence has been completed. Moreover, your marker has been deactivated and your records purged from the system. For all legal purposes, you don't exist." Mikage snapped her computer shut. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I'm not authorized to arrest nonexistent people. The Director probably is, but it would seem he isn't here right now, so there's really nothing I can do for you."

Kiryu looked at her blankly. "But... but I..."

"My apologies," she said. "I'm afraid you're going to have to decide for yourself what to do from now on."

She got up and began dusting herself off. She helped Ushio to his feet. Kiryu continued to stand and stare, apparently at a loss for words. Crow ambled over and clapped him on the shoulder, steering him away.

"C'mon," he said. "Stop bothering the nice police people."

Kiryu allowed himself to be led away, still too stunned to formulate a response.

That was just as well, because a moment later, there was a small disturbance. A man was wandering around the lawn, stumbling and looking dazed. He was well-dressed enough that he might have, in other circumstances, seemed like he belonged there, if it hadn't been for the bloody wound at his temple. He paused a moment, taking in his surroundings. Aki was staring at him, her face pale. He noticed her, and his expression brightened somewhat. He approached her uncertainly.

"Excuse me," said Divine. "You look... vaguely familiar. I seem to be a little lost, and I was wondering, could you tell me... who I am?"

Aki looked at him a long moment before turning away.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I don't know you at all."

"Yeah, well, I know who you are," said Ushio, swaggering over to him. "You're Ambrose George Parker, and you're coming down to the station for a long conversation."

"Oh," said Divine, apparently uncomprehending but perfectly agreeable. "If you insist, then."

"Looks like it's time for us to clear out," said Ushio to Yusei and the others. "You guys gonna be all right? You've had a rough night..."

"We're fine," Yusei assured him. "Are you all right? You were in bad shape earlier."

"You know what? I feel fine," said Ushio. "Your red dragon musta patched me up on the way out - it's like nothing ever happened."

Yusei smiled. "That's great. It sounds like everything is working out for you, then."

"Yeah, I think everything's going to be just fine," said Ushio, but he was looking at Mikage.

The Security officers hustled Divine off to headquarters. The rest of the group managed to get themselves up and moving, recovering from their ordeal. In the warming light of the sun, it was hard to believe it was all real. Yusei stood silently at the edge of the garden, watching the sunlight ripple on the lake. Beyond the water, the city was starting to stir to life again. He could hear the distant noise of people already beginning to clean up the mess left by the dark cloud's passing. It was good to know life would go on.

"Hey, you look like you're thinking some deep thoughts, there," said Crow, ambling over to join him. "Care to share?"

"I was just thinking," said Yusei, "that we _did_ it. We put everything right. Satellite can be rebuilt. Everything is going to be different."

"Everything is going to be _better,_ you mean," said Jack, coming up behind them.

"That too," Yusei agreed. "But I wasn't just thinking about Satellite. I was thinking about our lives. We're going to have to make ourselves a place in the new city."

"All I can say," Jack replied, "is that Goodwin had better have honored his offer of getting a tryout for me."

"I'm sure you can manage something," said Yusei with a slight smile.

"Yeah, it's going to be pretty weird, come to think of it," said Crow. "What do you know, I might just have to give up my wicked ways and play it straight from now on. Who'd have thought?"

"At least we won't be doing it alone," said Yusei. "It looks to me like we might have some new friends who might be willing to help us figure things out."

"Heh, you never know," said Crow. "Maybe Yanagi will let me keep living in his attic. He sure has been having fun getting me to do all his chores!"

"I'll probably be staying with Saiga and Yuji. And Carly, too," said Jack. "At least for the time being, until I can get a place of my own. You aren't getting me back on that island - not after I went through all that trouble to get off!"

"You're going to have to," said Crow. "Our bikes are still parked back there."

"All right, but _after_ that, I'm staying on _this_ side of the water."

"How about you?" Crow asked Yuusei. "Where are you headed after this? You can't stay here, can you?"

"I'm going home," said Yusei. "I promised Rally I'd let him ride my D-Wheel. After that, though..."

He trailed off, turning things over in his mind. A lot of what he was thinking had to do with what his father had told him. There was still more danger out there. Someone had to be ready for it. As for the rest...

"Look up there," he said suddenly, pointing.

Everyone, Signers and non-Signers alike, stopped what they were doing and turned their faces to the sky. A light was shining above them that shone brighter even than the morning sunlight. The Crimson Dragon swooped over them all, its wings trailing sparks of light that fell down on them like snowflakes, and a few people laughed with delight and reached out their hands to catch them. Yusei tipped his head back and let them fall on his face, each a tiny point of warmth, and he smiled. The dragon gave one of its echoing cries and swooped eastward over the city, its fires blending into the light of the sun until it finally became invisible. Yusei watched a moment longer until he was sure it was really gone, and then closed his eyes, enjoying the simple warmth of the sun on his skin.

_It will be all right,_ he thought. _There's still a lot to be done, but... it's going to be all right. I'm sure of it._

**To Be Continued...**


	35. Epilogue

_**Note:**__ Well, this is the last chapter, folks! I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for sticking with me this far, and for all your lovely comments. I hope you will enjoy the ending!_

**Epilogue: More Career Choices**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Rex Goodwin stood in the empty space, waiting for whatever came next. If he felt anything at all, it was a sense of relief.

"Well?" said Dr. Fudo. "Are you ready to go?"

"That depends," Rex replied. "Where are we going?"

Dr. Fudo thought about it. "To the lab, I think, at least until you get your bearings. It will feel familiar to you."

"What, back to...?" asked Rex, waving his hand vaguely.

Keiko laughed. "Not the old lab. _Our_ lab. What did you think my dear husband's eternal reward would be?"

Rudger gave a bark of laughter. "I should have known."

"What in the world are you doing in a lab?" Rex asked, eyebrow raised. "What do you study?"

"Why, everything," said Dr. Fudo. "All of time and space. Imagine a lab with infinite space, an infinite budget, an infinite amount of supplies, and complete free reign to study whatever I want, and you'll get an idea of the scope I'm working on." He smiled, sudden and direct. "I could use a couple of good assistants."

Rex thought about it.

"Oh, why not," he said. "I have nothing better to do."

Keiko laughed. "I should have known you'd say that."

Her husband turned and gestured at the empty air, and there was a sudden swirl of light. Rex stared at it. Even after all he'd been through, it was hard to believe what he was seeing. It was much easier to believe in a place of eternal suffering than in a place where things went right for a change. Rudger clapped him on the shoulder.

"Come on," he said. "Wherever that goes, it's bound to be better than where we were."

Rex nodded, and the four of them walked together into the light.

Whatever Rex had been expecting, what he found was not it. It looked like any staff break room in any office building anywhere in the world: a small, dingy little room, lit by neon lights. There was a folding table in the middle of it, and a coffee pot and a box of doughnuts rested in the middle of it, surrounded by a jumble of notes and half-finished plans. Dr. Fudo and Mrs. Fudo immediately sat down and began helping themselves to refreshments. Rudger stared at them for a moment, shrugged, and did the same. Rex simply stood a moment, taking in the scene.

A table. Four chairs. One of them was empty. It was waiting for him. It always had been.

With a smile, he went to finally take his place.

* * *

Aki was surprised how much the small changes bothered her. The front door had been repainted, for one thing, white where it had once been red. Some new plants had been put into the flower beds around the front walls, and someone had hung a wind chime on a nearby tree. Everything was a reminder that Aki had been gone a long time.

_They fixed the windows,_ she noted, and put the thought out of her mind.

She still had a key to her own front door. She used it now, but stopped before actually opening the door. After the lifting of the black fog, all of those who had been taken by it had returned to more or less the same places they'd left, without any clear memory of what had happened to them. None of them, though, had fought a dark duel the way her father had.

_He's here. The professor said everyone would come back..._

He'd said everyone who'd vanished into the fog would come back. He hadn't said anything about the ones who'd been dueled.

_Hiding won't fix anything,_ she told herself. She took a breath and forced herself to push the door open.

The inside of the house was quiet. Aki told herself that it was to be expected: it was a large house, and her parents were only two people to fill it. Besides, her father would probably be at work...

No. He wouldn't. Not today. He would have to know, wouldn't he, that she would try to come back?

Aki walked silently through the house, checking rooms. She found a few people tidying up the rooms, but they took one look at her and darted away nervously before she could ask them anything. It all felt vaguely dreamlike, as though she wandered through a house full of ghosts. On an impulse, she went to her old room. She wasn't quite sure why, except that she was curious about what it looked like after all this time.

It was almost exactly the same as she had left it. Someone had been there, cleaning. The plants on her windowsill had grown while she was gone; obviously they had been well tended to. Other than that one little change, it was as though she had never left at all.

_They were waiting for me to come back. They didn't want to forget about me..._

She wandered closer to the flowers, wanting a closer look at them, and as she did so, she heard a sound behind her. Aki turned to see her mother and father standing in the doorway. For a moment, they all stood frozen, watching each other cautiously. Her father cleared his throat.

"They... said you were here," he said. "We weren't sure..."

He trailed off uncertainly. Aki wondered if he remembered anything that had happened. Then she decided that it didn't really matter. She remembered. That was all they needed. She smiled at her parents.

"It's all right," she said. "I'm home."

* * *

Demak had been dreaming.

He couldn't quite remember what his dreams had been about, only that they had been dark and unpleasant, and he was relieved to be waking up with warm sunlight shining on his eyelids. He lay still for a moment, taking stock of his situation. The movement of the air told him that he was outside. He could feel grass and cool earth against his cheek. He couldn't quite remember how he'd gotten there, or why he'd fallen asleep outdoors, but something inside him said that it didn't really matter.

Something nudged him. He muttered under his breath, displeased that anyone would dare disturb his peaceful moment. Whatever the thing was, though, it was persistent. It shoved him again, harder this time, and he opened his eyes and sat up to give whatever-it-was a piece of his mind.

Sunlight dazzled him. He shaded his eyes, trying to take in his new surroundings. He was sitting on a grassy hill, surrounded by flowers of every color of the rainbow. A silvery brook wound past him nearby, splashing musically. On the far side of the brook was a forest, its trees a deep and peaceful green. The sky was more intensely blue than any sky he'd ever seen, flecked with the occasional wispy cloud. He stared at it all, unable to do anything but gape. He had never been exposed to so much beauty in one place in his entire life, and he was dazed by it, unable to take it all in. For a few moments, he could hardly breathe.

Something bumped him again, and he caught his breath in a rush. He turned to see what was doing it, and found himself facing a sleek rainbow-colored beast.

"Fish!" he exclaimed.

The Seven-Colored Fish burbled contentedly at him, and he flung his arms around its neck. It butted his chest affectionately and wagged its tail.

"It's good to see you again, Fish," he said.

The fish burbled again. The sound was echoed somewhere above him, as something gave out a ringing cry. Both of them looked up to see the Ancient Fairy Dragon soaring across the sky, the sun shining through her wings and making them glow like a stained-glass window. Demak watched, enchanted. A small part of him thought that even if he never saw anything like that again, he would be content just for having seen it once. He sat perfectly still, staring until she was out of sight. Then he roused himself.

There was a lot more to see.

"Come on, Fish," he said. "Let's explore."

* * *

Misty was not sure where she was going next. She only knew that she was going to leave. There were too many difficult memories here, too many things she didn't want to have to deal with. She had put in a call to her agent, letting him know that she was ready to take on a job, any job, as long as it wasn't in Neo Domino City. Within an hour, he had called back telling her that he'd arranged a photo shoot in Paris, and she could be there whenever she was ready. It was good enough.

She had been in the middle of packing her things when there came a knock on the door. Several knocks, in fact, probably made by more than one fist. She put down the shirt she'd been folding and went to answer it, and found Rua and Ruka on her doorstep. They both looked a bit flushed, as if they'd been running. She smiled at them.

"I'm sorry," she said. "Now isn't a very good time..."

Rua shook his head. "You need to come with us."

"I can't," she said. "I'm leaving. I have to go back to work."

"Then you should come with us while you have the chance," said Ruka seriously. "This is _important_."

In spite of herself, Misty was intrigued. "What is?"

"You have to see for yourself!" Rua insisted. "Come on! Everyone is waiting?"

"Everyone?" Misty repeated. "I don't know..."

The twins wouldn't listen. They caught her hands and began drawing her forward, insisting that it was important that she come with them, and she finally relented. Whatever they wanted her to see, it couldn't possibly be worth fighting about. She had done too much fighting already. She told herself she could just look at whatever they wanted her to see and be done with it.

They led her outside, to where a taxi was idling, its driver watching attentively. As soon as the children approached, he bounded out and opened the doors for them.

"Where are we going?" asked Misty as she slid inside.

"You'll see when we get there," said Ruka, eyes sparkling.

"It's a surprise!" her brother agreed.

Misty knew when not to argue.

They rode to the edges of the city, straight up to the gate where the Security entrance had been. There wasn't a gate anymore. Director Goodwin might have been gone, but his final papers had included instructions that Satellite be rebuilt and the bridge completed. In the meantime, the Security entrance had been opened to the public, with no more than a token guard to keep an eye open for trouble. He was there now, smoking a cigarette and reading a magazine. He gave them all a cursory glance and waved them through.

The road beyond the gate was rough, and in some places nonexistent, but the children seemed to know where they were going. Rua, who had started out sitting in the back seat with everyone else, scrambled up into the front to help guide the driver. They drove through the crumbling remains of the old city, drawing curious stares from passers-by. At last, they came to a place where there were a few trees growing, and some dusty grass, and in the midst of it all was a house. The driver stopped.

"We're here!" Rua exclaimed.

He bounded out of the car, and his sister followed him at a more sedate pace. Misty stepped out onto the ground and looked around.

"What is this place?" she asked.

"Martha's house," said Ruka. "Yusei told us about it."

"All right," said Misty, bemused, "but who is Martha?"

"She runs the orphanage," Rua explained.

"Orphanage?" Misty repeated. "Why would..."

Rua simply took her hand and began dragging her around to the back of the house, telling her to hurry. She followed him to the back yard, where a number of children were scampering around, chasing rubber balls, shouting at each other, and generally showing high spirits. Rua stopped to look at Misty, clearly proud of himself.

"We found you someone to play with," he said. "These kids have all lost their families, too, so they need somebody. I mean, I know nobody is going to be just like your brother, but..."

"You don't have to be lonely anymore," Ruka finished.

"I don't know," said Misty hesitantly. "I'm not sure it works like..."

She was interrupted by a tug on her skirt. She looked down to see a small girl with pigtails looking up at her, eyes wide.

"How do you get your hair so pretty?" she asked.

Misty stared at her a moment. A smile crept over her face.

"It takes a lot of work," she said. "But I think your hair is very pretty, too."

"Really?" the little girl asked.

Misty nodded. On an impulse, she opened her purse and took out a comb. Then she reached up and removed the jade clasp that she'd been wearing in her hair.

"Here," she said. "You can wear this."

The girl's eyes lit up. "Really? You mean it?"

"Of course. I have more at home. Here, I'll put it in for you..."

She knelt down to undo the girl's pigtails, and began gently combing out her hair with her fingers. A few of the other children stopped what they were doing to keep watch over this stranger. Misty calmly ignored them and finished putting the girl's hair back in the clip, and then released her, watching as the child pranced about gleefully, showing off to her friends.

"Me next!" another girl said. "I want my hair done too!"

"Hey, isn't she the lady from TV?" asked one of the boys.

"Yeah, that's her!" another agreed. "No fair! How come she plays with the girls and not us?"

Misty looked up, amused. "What do you want me to play?"

A moment later, Rua and Ruka were sitting on the steps, drinking lemonade that Martha had kindly provided for them and watching the show. Out on the grass, Misty was running barefoot, having abandoned her expensive but impractical high heels. Her hair was in disarray, and her dress had taken a few grass stains where she had tumbled on the lawn. She was chasing after the ball while the children threw it back and forth, trying to keep it away from her, and she was laughing. Rua and Ruka grinned at each other, pleased to see a job well done.

Something in Misty's purse jangled. The twins looked at her, but she was taking no notice. Rua shrugged, got up, and answered the phone.

"Hello?" he said.

"Who are you?" a harried voice demanded.

"I'm one of Misty's friends," said Rua. "Are you looking for her?"

"Yes, I'm looking for her! She was supposed to be at the airport half an hour ago! She's going to miss her flight!"

Rua looked back at Misty. She had finally managed to catch the ball, and was being swarmed by children trying to take it from her.

"I think she changed her mind," he said, and hung up the phone.

* * *

Even from a distance, Kiryu could hear the sounds of people at work. It was an encouraging sound. There were still mixed reactions from the city's populace about the reclaiming of the island. The official story, put out by Jaeger, who was turning out to be better at running things in Goodwin's absence than anyone had imagined he would, was that the dark clouds that had engulfed the city had been caused by a gas leak brought on by instabilities in the old Momentum and the breakdown of various equipment. Exposure to the gas had caused hallucinations and unconsciousness, hence the number of people who believed they'd seen strange lights in the sky or had awakened to find themselves lying sprawled on the sidewalks. The official story was that Director Goodwin, who had worked on the original project and understood the mechanisms involved, had taken it upon himself to enter the old laboratory in an attempt to contain the damage, and while he had ultimately been successful, he had died from overexposure to the chemicals, which explained why he had been found outside the old lab's site lying dead without a mark on him.

In the wake of all this, Jaeger had declared that the island was a health hazard and should be cleaned up and rebuilt in an effort to prevent anything like this from happening again. Some people were all in favor, if it would keep anything like that black fog from appearing again. Others said that opening up the island would lead to a rise in crime and flood the city with lazy vagabonds who had no desire for work. Jaeger had ignored them all and simply put out a declaration that anyone on the island who wanted a job working on the Satellite reclamation project would be allowed to do so and paid accordingly. Naysayers predicted that no one would show up.

People had arrived in droves.

Kiryu paused a moment as he arrived at the site of the new bridge. It was swarming with people, many of them familiar. They were people he'd seen every day, before he'd been sent to prison. Some of them, he'd considered friends. They were all hard at work. Not all of them knew how to do skilled labor, but they were more than willing to lift and carry and clean up debris, to mix cement and roll on paint. There were even children there, eagerly fetching tools and carrying water bottles for the thirsty workers. It was almost enough to make Kiryu smile. A bridge, a real bridge, being built right in front of him, by workers from both the island and mainland alike. It was more like some sort of bedtime story than something he'd expect to see in real life. He stood in the shadow of a building and watched for a while.

It felt very quiet inside his mind.

One particular figure stood out in the crowd. His bright red hair was visible even from a distance, and Kiryu was close enough now to see even the faint metallic glimmers of sunlight reflecting off his markers. It was hard to imagine that anyone on the work site could be any more enthusiastic about the job than Crow was. It was impossible to be sure what the original color of what he was wearing might have been, because it was soaked through with sweat and liberally spattered with dust, paint, and assorted unidentifiable grime. He looked like he was having a wonderful time. Kiryu hated to spoil it. After a few moments of watching, though, he gathered his courage and started forwards.

Crow noticed him, of course. The smile vanished from his face, and he gave Kiryu a serious look as he approached.

"Hey," he said guardedly.

"Crow," said Kiryu. "I think we need to talk."

"Talk while I'm working," Crow suggested.

"I'm leaving Neo Domino."

Crow glared at him. "What the hell are you doing that for?"

"I have to," said Kiryu. "There's no place for me here."

"You're nuts," said Crow. "Come on, I thought you got over being crazy. Don't start again."

"Don't joke, Crow! I'm serious!" said Kiryu.

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Crow. "Seriously. You've got a clean record now. There's no reason why you can't stay here if you want to."

Kiryu shook his head. "It's not that simple. Just because the books say I'm not a criminal anymore doesn't mean that everyone is going to forgive and forget. As far as this city is concerned, I'm still the one who tried to single handedly wipe out the government. They aren't just going to smile and welcome me with open arms."

"Uh-huh. I gotcha," said Crow, raising an eyebrow. "So basically, instead of trying to prove them wrong, you're just going to throw up your hands, say 'it's too hard, I can't do it' and quit. Totally understand."

"It's not that simple!" Kiryu snapped. A few people had stopped what they were doing to stare at him, and were either backing away from him or surreptitiously easing closer to hear more clearly. He ignored all of them.

"Never said it was," said Crow. "It's probably going to be hard as hell. Trust me, I've been there. So have you. I don't understand why you're talking about giving up now."

"I'm not talking about giving up!" Kiryu said, frustrated. "I'm just talking about... going somewhere else for a while. Someplace I can start over fresh."

"Start over here," said Crow. "Look around you - really _look_. The bridge is getting built. The island is going to become part of the city. We're not going to be second-class citizens anymore. Shoot, Security is actually on _our side_, for once. This is your dream, Kiryu. It's what you wanted all along, isn't it - to turn Satellite into the kind of place we'd enjoy living in? Can you really walk away from that?"

Kiryu was quiet for a moment. He knew Crow was right. A part of him _did_ want to stay, but...

"What do you expect me to do?" he asked quietly.

In response, Crow reached into a toolbox and pulled out a screwdriver. He offered it to Kiryu. With his free hand, he gestured at the bridge, at the crumbling buildings, and the construction crews working on both of them.

"Why don't you build something?" he said.

* * *

There was a lot of activity going on around Martha's house. This was nothing unusual, since at any given time she generally had at least half a dozen active children in her care, but this day was special in terms of the sheer scale of commotion. It appeared that a small army, carrying an assortment of ladders, tool boxes, and buckets of paint, had decided to make a camp on her front lawn. When the orders had gone out that Satellite should be rebuilt, her orphanage had apparently been put near the top of the list of things that needed repairing, and she had suddenly found herself with a pile of grant money for the sole purpose of bringing her building up to code.

Even if the money hadn't been there, though, the work still would have gotten done. The island was full of people who owed her favors, and when word got out, they had descended en masse, ready to do whatever they could to help.

Yusei was among them. At the moment, he was perched atop a stepladder on the back porch, replacing a light fixture that had burnt out eons ago and had never been deemed important enough to replace. What was left of it was so old and corroded that he was having to reinstall nearly everything down to the wiring. He paused a moment to wipe sweat from his brow, leaving a rusty streak across his skin.

From his vantage point, he could observe much of the other action. Aki had turned up early, and had immediately taken over the task of lawn reclamation. Under her guidance, the grass was being re-seeded, flower beds mulched, and shrubs planted. For the first time since he'd met her, she looked less than perfectly groomed, her clothing all but hidden under a layer of mud and grass stains. At the moment, she was busily overseeing a few others as they installed a row of climbing roses against one wall.

The door swung open, slamming into Yusei's ladder and making it lurch precariously.

"Whoa!" he shouted.

"Oops, sorry!" said Yuji "Didn't see you up there."

"It's all right," said Yusei as he began climbing back down to earth. "We were going to replace that door anyway."

Saiga came out of the house, brushing his hands together with a look of satisfaction.

"The AC is working," he announced. "You're now the first building on the island with air conditioning."

Yuji nodded. "And it's cable and internet ready. You know, whenever you get around to that."

"Thanks, both of you," said Yusei. "You've been a big help."

"I figured it wouldn't kill me to be useful once in a while," said Saiga. "And everyone else was doing it."

Yuji punched his shoulder. "Don't listen to him. He just likes to put on his old-grouch act."

"Well, whatever the reason, we're glad you're both here," said Yusei.

He folded up his ladder and wandered around to the side of the house, where other work crews were busy with other projects. He waved to Taka, Nerve, and Blitz, who were hard at work patching up the roof. A flock of children wearing oversized leather gardening gloves were scurrying around collecting the old shingles and piling them into wheelbarrows. Rua and Ruka were already chatting and joking with the rest of the children as if they'd been best friends forever. Yusei waded through them, exchanging greetings as he passed, and made his way to the front yard.

Things were equally hectic there. Not only were workers busy there as well, but Crow had found a barbecue grill somewhere, and he and Martha and several others were hard at work creating a picnic lunch for all the people who'd turned up to help. It smelled wonderful, and Yusei, who had been hard at work since nearly dawn, found himself thinking longingly of the hamburgers that were being turned on the grill. Sitting in a shady spot out of the way of the other workers was Yanagi, keeping watch over the children who were too small to work or had become tired from their labors. He seemed to be telling them a silly story about a prince and a soldier with ugly feet.

"I see you're having fun," said Yusei as he passed.

Yanagi beamed. "You bet! I'm glad to be here!"

"And I'm glad you're here," said Yusei. "It's good to know you're feeling all right. Crow told me you got hurt while you were helping him."

The old man waved a dismissive hand. "That? That was nothing. I feel fine! Though, you know, I had the strangest dream while I was out. I dreamed that you were there taking care of me, but in my dream, you were wearing a long white coat, and your eyes were green. Isn't that strange?"

Yusei smiled. "Very strange."

_Thanks, Dad,_ he thought, as he walked away.

His attention was caught by a car pulling up to the house. He hadn't seen that particular vehicle before, but he recognized the driver and grinned. He hurried forward to greet the new guests.

"Ushio," he said, as his friend climbed out of the car, "you're not in uniform."

"Don't need to be," said Ushio cheerfully. "I got promoted. You're looking at the new assistant to the chief of Special Investigation."

"That sounds important," said Yusei.

"You haven't heard the best part," Ushio replied. "Mikage got a promotion, too."

"Let me guess. Same department?"

Ushio grinned widely as he walked around to open the passenger side door.

"Let me introduce you to the new chief of Special Investigations," he said.

Mikage got out of the car. She was, for the first time since Yusei had met her, wearing something other than her serious business garb. She was dressed in denim cutoffs and a T-shirt, obviously prepared to put in some hard work, but apparently she couldn't put her job behind her so easily. She was, in fact, deeply absorbed in a telephone call.

"Mm-hm... Yes, that's right. The files should be in the third cabinet over, in the drawer marked "correspondence"... No, I don't think that will work. Trust me on this one," she was saying. When she noticed Yusei, though, she quickly disentangled herself from the conversation with a few more words and hung up the phone. "Oh, hello, Yusei. Sorry to tune you out, but he just wouldn't stop asking questions."

"Someone from work?" Yusei inquired.

"The Vice-Director," said Mikage. "He's a little overwhelmed, I think. His job has mostly been more about public relations than actually making any decisions, and he seems a bit lost without Director Goodwin to tell him what to do. We'll all be much happier once a new Director is appointed."

Yusei smiled. "Maybe they should give you the job. You seem to know how it's done."

"Oh, heavens, no," said Mikage, blushing. "I'm not nearly experienced enough. I'm just sort of helping out until things get back into a routine."

Her phone rung again. She glanced at the caller ID and sighed, "Not _again_. Excuse me a minute..."

She wandered off, phone glued to her ear. Ushio watched her go with a dreamy sigh.

"She'd be the best Director _ever_," he said.

He was interrupted from his reverie by a small human-shaped object slamming into his legs. He looked down to see that a small boy had just flung his arms around him.

"Hey, kid," said Ushio. "Takuya, right? Nice to see ya again."

"Hi, Officer Ushio!" said the boy. "I knew you'd come back and visit!"

"Hey, I said I would and I did!" said Ushio. "A Security officer's word is always good!"

"You're just in time," said Takuya. "We're just about to have lunch. You can have lunch, too," he added magnanimously to Yusei.

"Thanks," said Yusei.

Takuya looked up at Ushio. "Will you sit next to me?"

"Might as well. I gotta sit somewhere," said Ushio.

"Okay! I'll save you a seat!" said Takuya, and scampered off.

Yusei smiled as he started towards the folding tables that had been set up as a picnic area.

"He seems to like you," he observed.

"No accounting for taste," said Ushio, falling into step with him. "He's a good kid, though. Wants to join Security when he grows up, yanno?"

"I might have heard something like that," Yusei agreed. He gave Ushio a sidelong look. "How _did_ the Vice-Director find out about this place, anyway?"

Ushio grinned. "Oh, I mighta mentioned something, somewhere along the line."

There was an edge to his grin, and Yusei wondered just what that meeting had entailed. He had a vision of Ushio looming over the Vice-Director as he spelled out exactly what he wanted. Yusei smiled, too.

"I'm sorry I missed it," he said.

As they neared the seating area, Yusei discovered that other people had arrived without attracting his attention. This was possibly because Martha had detained both of them. She was busy chatting with Carly, while Jack looked on with an expression of deep embarrassment.

"...just the cutest little thing," Martha was saying. "I still have pictures of him from when he was little. Do you want to see them?"

"Yes!" said Carly.

"No!" said Jack.

"Hello, Jack," said Yusei, deciding to be merciful and provide a distraction. "Are you here to help?"

"I might," said Jack. "But Carly wanted to meet Martha, and today was as good a day as any."

"Don't listen to him. He wanted to help," said Carly.

"Of course he did," said Martha. "But it was nice of him to introduce me to his new sweetheart." She looked Carly over thoughtfully. "You're not quite what I was expecting, but I think he made a good choice. You seem like a nice young lady. Have you two made any plans for the future yet?"

"Martha..." said Jack, looking embarrassed.

Carly glowed and held out her left hand. "Jack gave me a ring, see?"

"Oh, my," said Martha, eyes shining with amusement. "Engaged already? Well, Jack always was a precocious boy."

"It's not like that!" Jack protested. "Carly, tell her it's not like that."

"Oh, look," said Carly. "It's the guys from the plant. Hey, guys, over here!"

Carly raced off to where she'd seen Taka, Nerve and Blitz making their way to the lunch tables. They caught her in a group hug and began chatting animatedly.

"Popular girl," Martha teased. "You'd better be careful, Jack. If you keep putting her off, someone might snatch her away from you."

Jack rolled his eyes. "I'm going to get lunch."

"Get it while the getting's good!" Crow shouted back. "Today, Crow the Bullet is making burgers!"

Ushio looked at Yusei. "Is that a good thing?"

"I'm getting a plate," said Yusei.

In the end, they all ended up gathering around one long table: Yusei, Ushio, Mikage, Takuya, Jack, Carly, Saiga, Yuji, Crow, Aki, Rua, and Ruka. It was a lively group. Crow had outdone himself with his grill-work, and Martha and her fleet of helpers had produced an array of side dishes that had everyone going back for seconds. For a while, conversation was limited to commenting on the food and asking people to pass the condiments.

"I've got to hand it to you, Crow," said Ushio. "You know your way around a grill. How'd you learn to cook?"

Crow shrugged. "I've got kids. They've gotta eat. And grilling stuff is the easiest way to cook around here - stoves are hard to come by, but all you need for a grill is a fire and something to keep the food from falling into it."

"Well, you could open a restaurant when you're done with this building stuff," said Ushio. As he spoke, he was starting in on his third burger.

Crow laughed. "Not me. I don't know if I have a head for business."

"What _are_ you all going to do now?" asked Mikage. "I mean, some of you haven't even had jobs before, have you?"

Yusei smiled a little. "Not unless you count working for the Director."

"You did a fine job with that," Mikage assured him. "You know, if you do need a job, I'm sure I could get you one. Security could use someone like you."

"I don't know," said Yusei. "Apparently Goodwin left me some money in his will - not much, but enough to make a start with somewhere. I was thinking of enrolling in a college. There's a lot about the world I don't know yet."

"That would be nice," said Aki. "I'm going back to Duel Academia soon. Maybe we could study together."

"You should come stay with us!" said Rua. "We've got a big house you could live in! You can be our babysitter."

Yusei laughed. "You two don't need a babysitter."

"Sure we do," said Rua, looking angelic. "Just look at all the trouble we got into being left alone!"

"You could always come help us out, if you want," Yuji offered. "Saiga and I are going into building custom D-Wheels."

Saiga nodded. "Jack says you're a pretty mean hand with a wrench. We'd be glad to have some extra help."

"Hey, if Yusei's building anything, he's building it here," Crow opined. "I mean, it's going to take months to get this island rebuilt. Yusei, you ought to come with me and help out on the bridge."

"He's doing no such thing," said Jack. "He's going to try out for the Pro Leagues with me. He's the only one good enough to keep my skills sharpened."

Yusei laughed. He couldn't help it. It was funny to think that he'd started out with no options - just another nobody from Satellite. Now he had more options than he knew what to do with. Looking around at the faces of his friends, though, he thought perhaps it didn't matter which direction he picked. No matter what he chose, he knew he'd be home.

* * *

The day was coming to an end. The sun was setting over Martha's house, gleaming off its fresh paint. Most of the workers had already gone home, agreeing to come back the next day to finish the last few jobs, and Martha had herded her weary children inside for hot baths and some sleep. Only Jack and Carly were left. Carly watched him as he set aside the paint scraper he'd been using and stood up, stretching his work-stiffened muscles.

"Tired?" she asked sympathetically.

"Not so much," he said. "It will be dark soon, though."

"Guess we should be heading home," she agreed.

He shook his head. "Not yet. First, I want to show you something."

"Oh?" she asked, interested.

Instead of speaking, Jack led her around to the back of the house. There was an old drainpipe there. He sized it up for a moment, then reached out and grabbed it, using a windowsill to give himself a foothold. With the ease of long practice, he began scaling the wall. Halfway up, he paused and looked down at Carly.

"Well?" he said. "Are you coming?"

Carly wasn't at all certain that she could manage such an athletic feat. Jack must have sensed her uncertainty, because he added, "I did this all the time when I was young. It's not as hard as it looks. You'll be fine."

Encouraged, she took hold of the drain. It was sturdier than it appeared, held in place with a regular series of brackets that made it easy to climb. She managed to shimmy up it without incident. There was a brief moment of difficulty as she tried to pull herself over the edge of the gutter, but Jack gave her a hand, and she was able to clamber onto the roof. She crouched there for a moment, catching her breath. Jack sat down next to her, gazing off into the sunset. There was a good view from up there. If she looked in the right direction, she could just make out the glow that was the light from Neo Domino City shining against the darkening sky.

"I used to come here a lot," he said, "when I wanted some privacy. Or if Martha was angry at me."

Carly smiled and made herself comfortable next to him. "I'll bet you were nothing but trouble."

"I probably was," he admitted. He didn't sound particularly ashamed of it. "I was up here often enough, anyway. I used to come up here and look at the city, and tell myself how I would run away someday to live there and be famous."

"And now you've done it," she said. "Just like I was going to leave home and be a great reporter."

"We were lucky," Jack agreed quietly. "Goodwin kept his word, you know. I got a message from one of his contacts, saying I could have a tryout next week."

"Are you nervous?" she asked.

He shook his head. "No. But things are going to be different now."

"I guess you're right," she said. "I got a call from the Neo Domino Daily. They want me to write features on dueling for them. I'm probably going to take the job."

"You should," said Jack. "It's what you wanted, isn't it?"

"I guess," she said. She hung her head a little. "I guess this means we're going our own ways, from here on in."

"It does," he agreed.

"I... really enjoyed this, though," she said. "Well, not everything. Not the monsters and the zombies and people getting hurt, but... I'm really, really glad I got to know you. You're the best thing that ever happened to me."

"We were both very lucky," Jack agreed.

They were quiet for a moment. Carly found herself reaching for his hand, uncertain of who she was trying to comfort with the gesture, and as she did so, she noticed the ring still on her finger.

"Oh," she said. "Your mother's ring... I ought to give it back. I guess you'll be wanting it..."

She started to take it off, but he closed his hands around hers to stop her.

"Keep it," he said. "I've gotten used to you having it."

"Wow, um... th-thank you!" she stammered.

"I'll probably want it back eventually," Jack continued. "So you'll just have to stay close, so I can find you when I want it."

Carly felt her cheeks flush. "Um... when will that be?"

"I haven't decided," said Jack. "It might be a long time. You don't mind, do you?"

"No," she said, leaning to rest her head on his shoulder. "I don't mind. I'll stay as long as you want."

"Even if it takes the rest of your life?"

"Especially then," she said.

"Good," Jack replied. "That's settled, then."

Carly said nothing, but she sighed contentedly and settled herself more comfortably against his side. She gazed out over the water as the lights of the city flickered on, becoming steadily brighter against the onset of night. Carly watched it a moment longer before glancing down at the ring on her hand, and the man sitting next to her. Neo Domino City was the city of dreams, but the time for dreams was over, and from where she sat, reality looked like it was going to be just fine.

**The End**


End file.
